Fix You
by MaloMoriQuamFoedari
Summary: Callie needed to get away from everyone and everything in Seattle. Leaving her life behind, Callie buys a beach house in sunny SoCal and happens to meet Arizona Robbins, a perky and pretty handywoman who may be just the thing Callie needs, not only to fix her house, but to fix her broken and disillusioned heart in the process. Rated M for future chapters.
1. New Beginnings

**Fix You**

**A/N: Hey guys! So I had this idea for a story, and I needed to get it out of my system before I could add anything new to my other story _Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum_, so… ****  
**

**Hope you guys like the story, and don't forget to tell me what you think! Tak :D**

**Disclaimer: Don't own it, don't make monies from it, but love it like my own nonetheless. **

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**Chapter One: New Beginnings**

Callie wiped her finger through the thick layer of dust that had accumulated over what she guessed had been years of disuse on the plain wooden dining table in front of her. Looking around, the Latina sighed. The sun streaming through the equally dusty windows creating a light show typical of a house that hadn't been lived in a long time, the particles in the air visible to the eye, haven been awoken from their slumber by Callie's clumsy movements, disturbing the peace that had overcome this place for so long.

She'd wondered if she'd made the right choice. If leaving so quickly was really necessary. Yes, things had been bad, but had she taken things to an extreme? Callie shrugged the thoughts off and continued her self-guided tour around the beach house in a small town, just south of Los Angeles and, at least metaphorically, about as far away from her life in Seattle as humanly possible. She needed this, Callie mentally reasoned, her own mind oftentimes her own worst enemy, because things needed to change. Change was good, change was healthy and out in the sun, the fresh air, the sea breeze, she was getting a change.

So she'd bought a house. This house to be precise, and calling it a doer-upper was probably an understatement. Callie sighed again as she turned a faucet in the downstairs bathroom only to be greeted with a spluttering stop-start of water from its orifice.

She was definitely going to need a handyman, and fast. Callie liked to pride herself on the fact that she could take care of herself, that she knew how to fix most things, but this job. This job was way too big for one person, especially when, if she was honest, they were as inexperienced as Callie was herself. It's not as though the place was uninhabitable, but it wasn't exactly Caesars Palace either.

Once again, continuing on her journey, Callie carefully, step by step, made her way up the dubious staircase and gasped as she reached the top of the stairs. Being only one room, a sort of a mezzanine type of set up, where railings were all that separated you from the main room below and a long drop, the floor to ceiling windows let what seemed like endless light stream into the small house, bringing the ocean view into the room as if she was standing directly on the beach itself.

French doors on the beach side of the room led to a small, intimate balcony, a lone chair in the corner adding a sense of melancholy to the beautiful view, the legs uneven and paint peeling from being neglected to the elements for so long. Callie chuckled lightly to herself at the symbolism that dripped from it. Setting her weary body carefully into the chair, its integrity questionable, Callie relaxed slightly when she confirmed that it would, indeed, carry her load.

'_I could get used to this'_, Callie thought to herself, taking in the violet and orange colours created by the sun in the sky as it descended to its bed behind the sea whilst leaning back slightly in her chair until the front feet were slightly off the ground, a habit that she hadn't truly out grown since childhood. The only thing that was different now compared to when she was a child, excepting the fact that she was much taller and had hair in places that only meant more shaving and waxing, was that she didn't have her sister around to push the now two legged chair over with her on it. Oh, sibling love!

'_I could get very used to this indeed.'_

* * *

"Shut up, Tim. You have no idea what you are talking about." Arizona chastised, slowly peeling the label off her botte of beer, but only managing to free one side before the paper ripped, a look of disappointment spreading across her dimpled, porcelain features.

"Ha!" Her brother exclaimed, lilting his head back in a dramatic fashion. " I'll have you know that I am well known in this town for my…"

"Incredibly small penis?" Arizona interjected, the smile on her face displaying nothing but mischief.

"It's bigger than yours." Tim replied nonchalantly, taking a long sip of his beer.

"I would hope so, seeing as I am a woman and have a vagina." Arizona replied in kind, taking a leaf out of her brother's book and downing a healthy amount of her own beer.

"Eww." Tim scrunched his nose in distaste, running the bottle of his beverage across the top of the table, the condensation that had formed on the bottom helping it glide smoothly across the polished wood. "I hate that word."

"What?" Arizona scoffed. "Vagina? You love vagina, Tim."

"Yes, I love _it_, almost as much as you, but I just don't like the word, is all." Tim shrugged. He knew it was irrational, but he just didn't like the word.

"Vagina, vagina, vagina, vagina." Arizona teased, a sing-song quality to her voice. "You must be a bit of a vagina for not liking the word vagina, Timothy." Arizona continued, putting emphasis on the word in question every time, pausing only to take another sip of her beer. "Vagina is just a word, nothing scary about the word vagina. About half the population have vaginas."

Looking around the bar, Tim's face turned the distinct shade of a beet. Arizona had turned more than a few heads.

"Stop it!" Tim hissed, his head retreating into his shoulders. "People are starting to look at us."

Arizona gazed around the bar, nodding politely to the owner Joe and taking in the interested looks of a couple of patrons within earshot. Apart from that, the rest of the bar seemed oblivious to her 'vagina' flinging escapades.

"That is all in your head" Arizona drawled, leaning precariously back on her chair, the two front feet at least 3 inches from the ground. "But fine."

"Thank You." Tim let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding and finished off the remains of his beer.

"Vagina." Arizona blurted, Tim's beer shooting out of his nose, covering his pants in the amber liquid. "Sorry, just slipped in. I mean out…"

Tim shot his sister a look that could kill, jabbing his foot gently but forcefully on the front foot of Arizona's chair, causing the blonde woman to flail about unceremoniously before being able to save herself, her elder brother's laughter filling her ears.

"Now what were we talking about." Arizona continued unaffectedly, returning to her previous stance. "Oh yes. You were telling me that somebody bought that old abandoned house on the beach, which is absolutely crazy because nobody buys that house because it is haunted."

Tim just blinked in response, the action probably taking at least four times as long as it should have, for, what Tim would describe as, hyperbole.

"And you tease me about not liking… _that_ word." Tim retorted, annoyance in his voice as he rubbed furiously at his nose, trying to dull the stinging sensation brought on by shooting beer out of it. "You do realise that this isn't an episode of American Horror Story, right? Ghosts aren't real."

"Tim." Arizona stated, the look in her eyes dead serious as she slowly returned all four legs of her chair to the ground. "I know that ghosts are real because I have seen one."

"Oh really, is that so?" Tim asked sarcastically, crossing his arms on the table in front of him, leaning in closer to his sister. "Okay then, tell me, oh great medium, when was this and what did it look like."

Looking furtively around the room and scooting her chair closer to her brothers, Arizona cleared her throat, readying herself for an epic tale, one that hadn't been told in the 5 years since it's occurrence.

"I was in college." Arizona began in a whisper, as though she was telling a deep, dark secret. "It was a dark night and I was out with some friends. There was a chill in the air, and people had pumpkins on their front lawns and shit, so I guess it was near Halloween, if not actually October 31st."

Tim dropped his head onto his arms on the table in front of him and let out an exasperated sigh, gently bashing his head against his arms repeatedly.

"I was there that night, Arizona." Tim stated, his voice muffled through his arms and the table. Lifting his head and locking eyes with his sister, Tim continued. "There were no ghosts, no real ones anyways. They were all fake, I can guarantee you."

Arizona, about to finish off her own beer, carefully placed the brown bottle she was holding back on the table before she shook her head confidently, a slight look of pity on her face.

"But there was this one…" Arizona closed her eyes in concentration as though trying to visualise what she had seen that night, only causing Tim to sigh once again. "It was over one of the frat houses. It moved in the wind as though it was waving, as though it was beckoning me forwards, leading me into a realm of vast knowledge and happiness."

"Yes, Arizona. That was indeed a ghost." Tim agreed placatingly, mock condescension in his voice mixed with a hint of laughter. "A PVC one that probably cost around $14.99 at the store, you idiot. It was NOT the spirit of ancestors past or any of that mumbo jumbo. You always did get super weird when you smoked the MJ, Scotsdale."

"Ah…" Arizona smiled, a look of comprehension dawning on her face as she once again lent backwards in her chair. "Well that explains a lot from that night actually..."

Getting lost in her own little fantasy land remembering just how freaky things had gotten that night with… What was her name..? Lydia? Leila? Oh wait. It was somebody dressed as Princess Leia, that's right. Damn… That girl had Alderaan her tongue in and around places Arizona hadn't even realised she'd had…

"Okay, Arizona." Tim broke his sister from her reverie, knowing the look on her face and also knowing that directly addressing his, almost, female clone was the only way to regain her attention. "So do you believe me now?"

Arizona shook her head, her mind trying to refocus on what Tim had been saying and not about Princess Leia's rebellious tongue.

"Seeing is believing, Tim." Arizona replied having finally processed what her brother had asked. "I'll go down there tomorrow and scope it out. Maybe put in a flyer for my services to the new owner because God knows they're going to need all the help they can get doing that place up."

"It's a dump, that's for sure." Tim agreed, getting up from his stool and digging around in the pocket to his jeans, trying to find the change to pay for his beer.

"It's not a dump." Arizona defended, her voice raising half an octave and making Tim raise an eyebrow. "It… Just needs some love, is all. A little bit of TLC."

"Right..." Tim drawled, placing the change down on the table as he shrugged on his jacket. "Just don't start chasing waterfalls, okay buddy?"

"Ha. Ha." Arizona deadpanned, her face remaining perfectly still at Tim's horrendously terrible attempt at a joke. "Tim, you are such a creep."

Barking a laugh, Tim started to make his way to the door, patting his sister on the back as he made his way past her.

"Kudos, little sister. Kudos."

* * *

Callie couldn't over waking up in the mornings to the sun pouring through her window. Sure, she'd grown up in Miami and the weather there was pretty good, but here… it just felt different. Maybe it was that she'd left all the shit of everything that had happened in the last few months behind her to somewhere where hopefully it wouldn't follow.

"Hi." A voice from below her called, startling Callie. Callie shook her head, she didn't know anyone in the area yet, so there was no reason for anyone to be calling for her right? Probably someone on the beach saw someone the recognised, no way anyone was talking to her...

"Hey! Down here!" The voice called again, louder this time, but equally as persistent.

Leaning carefully against the wooden railing that surrounded the balcony, Callie spied a sweaty blonde dressed in workout clothes was standing below her balcony, her hand shielding her eyes from the morning sun as she peered up at Callie, obscuring her features.

"Umm…" Callie called back, amused confusion etched on her face. "Hi…"

"You the new owner?" The stranger asked, her voice nothing but friendly and inviting, making Callie feel instantly at ease.

The woman's body was extremely toned, the workout clothes hugging her form perfectly, showing off the curve of her hips, the shape of her breasts, her softly tanned skin – kissed by the California sun.

"Yep." Callie replied simply, at a loss for anything else to say to this intriguing, extremely hot stranger.

"It's a nice place." The stranger's voice was smooth as silk to Callie's ears, a perkiness in its tone that Callie hadn't heard in what felt like years. "Every day, when I ran past here in the mornings it would make me sad to think that such a beautiful house could be left to rot and ruin. A damned shame."

"Yeah," Callie smiled lightly, remembering the first time she'd seen the place, only a week before, but beginning to feel like a lifetime ago. "I fell in love with it the first time I saw it. It's going to take a while to get the place up and running, but I think it's going to be worth it."

"Well if you need a hand, or a handyman… well… handywoman, being as I am a woman, then I'd be happy to help." The stranger called, lowering her head to the ground, her eyes beginning to sting from the brightness of the morning sun.

"Well, I definitely need at least a hand, probably more to be honest." Callie chuckled, feeling herself being drawn in to this woman, this complete stranger who she knew nothing about.

Callie heard the blonde below laugh gently, the sound music to Callie's ears, an easy smile forming on her own lips in reply.

"Do you want to come in, have a look around?" Callie asked, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen between the two women. Callie was not normally the type to invite complete strangers into her home but she couldn't help but feel the need to be close to this woman. Maybe it was because Callie knew absolutely nothing about her, maybe it was the novelty of meeting someone new, or maybe it was the fact that she was completely gorgeous. Of course, there was a distinct possibility that all of the reasons aforementioned compelled the Latina to invite a strange woman, from a town which was still strange to her, into her new home.

Shaking her head lightly, realising that her mind had wandered away from her for a second, Callie blushed, having not heard an answer to her question.

"Y'know…" The Latina started to ramble, the heat rising on her cheeks. "Because you said you liked the house, and I thought that you might want to see what it's like…"

Pulling her out of her quickly escalating ramblings, a loud knock emanated from downstairs

"Open Sesame?" The now familiar voice of the woman who was still a stranger called, a bounce in her voice that screamed happiness and warmth with a hint of mischief.

Practically running back into the house and almost falling down the stairs at least twice, Callie rapidly yanked open the door – the sight that had amazed her on the balcony stunning her from less than 3 feet away.

"Hi." The woman in front of her smiled, the cutest pair of dimples being revealed in the process that made Callie's heart beat harder and faster in her chest. That smile was the closest thing to perfect she had ever seen in her life, it was magnificent, megawatt and magical.

"Hi." Callie breathed, her breath having been stolen on her sprint to the door and then once again stolen by the dimpled smile that had greeted her upon the opening of the door.

"I'm Arizona." The dimpled blonde offered her hand, the smile never leaving her face, her sapphire blue eyes sparkling vividly in the morning sunlight.

"Callie." The Latina replied, slightly more composed than before as she drank in the sight of the woman before her.

"It's nice to meet you, Callie." Arizona said, tingles running up and down Callie's arm as she took the blonde's hand in her own, revelling in the coolness that it gave, despite the heat the day was already gracing them with.

"It's nice to meet you too, Arizona."

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**A/N the second: Thanks for reading guys! What do you think of the premise etc.? And guys, please don't go chasing waterfalls, please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to (but please do tell me what you think!). Happy 2013 people! ^_^ Peace out!**


	2. Plans in Motion

**FIX YOU**

**A/N: So I seem to be on a bit of a roll with this one, despite it taking me ages to get this chapter out (School is back with a vengeance and midterms are already seemingly looming over the horizon). They say that you should write what comes easiest, and at the moment it's this. If there are any mistakes or weirdness then I apologise! Wanted to get this out before I went away for the weekend, so I'll have a better proof read after the weekend!**

**Shall we see what happened with our two favourite girls? Yes? Okay then, I suppose you can if you want ;) Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day guys!**

**Insert Disclaimer here.**

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**Chapter 2: Plans in motion**

"C'mon Flagstaff!" Tim persisted, having gotten no answer out of his sister after her visit to the infamous house on the beach they'd discussed the night before – Arizona seemed completely preoccupied and it only served to make Tim extremely curious. "What was it like?! And more importantly what was the owner like?"

Arizona sighed in contentment. She really couldn't have dreamt it better. The house, of course, was beautiful. Arizona had already decided that the moment she'd laid eyes on it when her family moved to the West Coast from Virginia all those years ago. But the owner - Callie… Arizona couldn't have conjured a sight more beautiful even if she decided to don a cloak and call herself Gandalf. Her mother had told her last Christmas that she was probably getting too old to still be doing that.

"Pretty." Arizona mused, more to herself than to her brother, remembering the way Callie's olive skin had seemed to dance under the light of the early morning sun, dark hair framing her delicate face perfectly, juxtaposing her oh-so inviting lips.

"Ahh…" Tim replied in realisation, confusion furrowing his brow when he realised his sister hadn't, quite, exactly answered his question. "Wait… Which one?"

"Both." Arizona replied simply, her mind still at the beach and a million miles from the conversation that her persistent brother was trying to engage her in.

"Well aren't you just the conversationalist today." Tim deadpanned, flinging himself into the sofa of their shared apartment and spreading himself across it, toes wiggling in his sister's face.

"Yep." Arizona replied, scrunching her nose at the smell of her brother's feet, sitting herself on the coffee table in front of the now occupied sofa, away from hairy man feet.

Letting her thoughts get away from her Arizona couldn't help but let her mind wander to the way Callie had looked, outlined by the sun on her balcony, the light morning breeze rolling in off the waves gently playing with the hair that just brushed her shoulders.

"Jesus, Arizona!" Tim cried, a smirk playing on his lips at just how smitten his sister seemed to be. "Just who was this woman?!"

"Aphrodite, Helen, Gaia... Pick one." Arizona sighed, resting her head in her hands as she closed her eyes

"Ooohkay…" Tim snorted. His sister was never one for the overly cliché romanticism. Noticing that his sister had paid no attention whatsoever to his amazingly grotesque impersonation of a farmyard animal, Tim quickly sat up."Seriously?"

"Seriously." Arizona's tone mirroring what she'd said, a smile playing on her rosy lips.

"Oh shit." Tim stifled a laugh, trying his hardest to keep a straight face. "I so need to see this."

"Her." Arizona corrected. "You mean to see her."

Tim shrugged his shoulders.

"Maybe."

"And don't you even try it, brother." Arizona warned, slapping her brother hard on the knee despite the apparent lack of a reason. Arizona was all too aware of her brother's antics and his reputation as a ladies man – in fact it had made for quite a fun competition of sorts when they were younger, seeing who could get the most women's phone numbers in one night.

Aah… to be young.

"Oh please. Did you even ask her if she's a lady loving lady?" Tim retorted, raising an eyebrow in his sister's direction. Arizona shook her head slightly, a moment of doubt passing across her porcelain features before it took on its usual steely determination. "No. Then how can you be sure that she is?"

"Because she was too beautiful to be straight." Arizona retorted immediately, sticking her tongue out at her brother. "Plus… She couldn't keep her eyes of my chest."

Tim rolled his eyes theatrically before replying.

"Now where did I put that pin..?" Tim laughed, pretending to look around himself for this imaginary pin. "I need something, anything! Something sharp and pointy to deflate your ego…"

"Haha." Arizona gifted her brother with another loud slap to the knee before standing from the coffee table, the bare wood not exactly the most comfortable thing in the world to be sitting on for prolonged periods.

"No one can resist the charm of Timothy Daniel Robbins, little sister. You should know this by now."

Arizona scoffed at her brother's admission, knowing all too well just who was immune to the charm of Timothy Daniel Robbins.

"Oh… So that's why Hannah in 7th Grade threw your 'love letters' straight into the bin before reading them then, is it?"

"Well she was just a spoilt little prissy bitch, so she doesn't count." Tim crossed his arms over his chest and pouted grumpily. He'd never be able to live that moment down – the moment when he came home crying because the person who he thought was going to be the love of his life at the time, turned out to be a stuck-up cow-bag -an extremely hot stuck-up cow-bag.

"Mmhmm." Arizona hummed letting Tim wiggle his way out of this one without too much trouble.

"What? She doesn't." Tim protested, knowing the look in his sister's eye as pity and mirth all rolled into one.

"Right. Of course not." Arizona patted her brother on the back in mock sympathy. "Silly me."

* * *

Callie mused to herself that maybe she should start getting up earlier. If today was anything to go by, then amazing things happened early in the morning like getting to meet hot blonde and dimpled strangers in tight workout clothes that just so happened to be in the carpentry business. And had an electrician for a brother.

Since she'd left earlier this morning, Callie couldn't keep her mind off of the woman… Arizona… It was a strange name, to be sure, but then Callie herself couldn't really say anything on that front, could she? How many people in the world were named Calliope? Besides, for the woman, the name sort of fit. Arizona… The state was more than hot in the summer, and Arizona the woman was definitely hot, which Callie had to assume was a perennial thing. Plus she had a certain demeanour about her, a determination and fighting spirit that Callie hadn't helped but notice since the minute the blonde had stepped foot in her house. It was a determination that people used to say that Callie herself possessed, but those types of comments had become few and far between in the last few months… So, in that way, Arizona the woman was also like the battleship, the USS Arizona.

Callie fiddled with the corners of her phone, flipping the object between her fingers absently as she tried to get up the courage to call the woman. Arizona had said to her that she would be more than happy to help the Latina renovate the house, but for some reason, Callie found herself questioning and doubting herself, wondering just exactly what to say when the beautiful woman from this morning picked up her phone.

'_Just ring her.'_ Callie reasoned as she continued to pace back and forth through the almost empty kitchen, _'she gave you her number, so she obviously wants you to ring her.'_

Holding her breath, Callie punched the now familiar numbers into her cell once more, having repeated this same process, Callie couldn't remember how many times, before losing her courage and cancelling the call before it connected. Clicking the call button quickly before she could overthink things any longer, Callie drew in a deep breath, stuffing her free hand into the pocket of her pants before it could cancel the call once again.

One ring, two rings, three rings… Callie sighed. She'd probably left it too late, Arizona was probably busy and probably didn't remember her anyways, after all, this was business to her. This was trade, what she did for a living. The only reason Arizona had probably even come into the house was because she was looking for the job. Callie scolded herself for being stupid enough to think that any of what had transpired earlier was because of her.

Releasing the breath she'd been holding since making the call, Callie took the phone from her ear, the disappointment of not hearing Arizona's voice much more intense than she would have imagined.

"Hello?"

Callie looked around the room, slightly confused before she realised the noise was emanating from the object still held in her hand.

"Hello? Callie, is that you?" The voice of the woman Callie had met earlier repeated, the hairs on the back of the Latina's neck instantly standing to attention, her lips suddenly becoming incredibly dry.

"Umm, yeah… Hi. I thought I'd missed you." The Latina replied shyly as she put the small device back to her ear, thankful that the blonde couldn't see the blush quickly rising on her cheeks. That would teach her not to wait until the final ring to give up on someone.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that, I'm always losing my phone!" The cheery voice replied, the joy in it infectious. "How are you?"

Callie couldn't help but smile at the blonde's easy question. It was a normal convention in conversation but it nether-the-less made Callie's heart flutter. Arizona wanted to know how she, Calliope Torres, was.

"I'm good, thanks." Callie replied happily, the smile clear in her voice. "You know what, I'm great in fact."

"Wow. Well… In that case, I want some of what you're having please." A small giggle from the other end of the phone line was all Callie needed for her smile to become megawatt. "I'm glad to hear it."

A silence fell between the two women, only the sound of the others light breaths being audible over the airwaves connecting the two. It wasn't one of those awkward silences, like the ones you get when you just meet someone, and although Callie realised the irony in her statement – she had, of course, only known Arizona for what amounted to a few hours, and their time together had been even less – the Latina couldn't help but feel as though she'd known the blonde for longer, as though they'd met before. Whatever it was, Callie was sure of one thing, that she felt better in herself just by talking on the phone to this woman, this stranger, than she had felt about herself in a long time.

"So…" That now familiar voice on the other side of Callie's phone drawled, drawing the Latina out of her introspective. "What's up?"

"Right." Callie almost laughed, nearly forgetting the whole reason that she had rung Arizona in the first place. Well, maybe not the whole reason, but a good portion of it anyways. "I wondered whether the offer still stood. Whether you still wanted to help me renovate the house…"

Another silence fell across the phone line, this time much less comfortable than the last. The seconds passed and minutes as Callie couldn't help but let her mind wander to the possibility that this was Arizona's way of letting her down easy, of letting the Latina know that she didn't have the time, that she was busy working on another project or just didn't want to give her the time of day. Maybe Callie had totally missed the mark and Arizona wasn't into girls at all- it did sound like that was a man's voice in the background…

"Sorry…" Arizona replied, her voice distant, seeming far away from the phone receiver.

Callie's heart shrank. Although she had just been playing the possibility of the blonde rejecting her in her mind, nothing really stung quite as much as the actual rejection in real life. It was stupid, really, if Callie let herself rationalise for just a second. What had Callie even asked? She hadn't asked Arizona to go on a date with her or anything, it wasn't as though she was rejecting Callie per se…

"Tim, fuck off." Arizona's voice blared from the phone at Callie's ear, the sudden noise causing the Latina to pull the handset away from her ear in shock. "I'm sorry Callie… My brother is being a dick and I didn't quite catch what you just said."

The Latina would have laughed at the situation if it had happened to anyone else, or if she'd seen it on television – here she was thinking that Arizona was trying to let her down easy, when in reality, she was just being distracted by her brother being… a brother.

"No worries." Callie replied slightly shakily, the adrenaline once again coursing its way rapidly through her veins, the rush making her slightly heady. "I just wondered if you still wanted to help me work on the house."

"Do I?!" Came the enthusiastic reply, the smile instantly returning to Callie's lips at the sound. "When can I start?"

"Well, I've not really got a schedule or anything set out yet, so… I guess I'm free whenever. Today, tomorrow…" Callie tailed off

"Great! I can come over later today if you want and…" The voice of the blonde was cut off by a much lower tone that Callie could just make out in the background, one that she assumed must be Tim, although she couldn't quite catch what he was saying.

"I'm sorry Callie." Arizona apologised, her voice becoming distant again as she re-engaged her brother in conversation. "What now Tim?"

Another set of mumbles were heard over the phone line and Callie couldn't help but chuckle at the absurdity of this phone call. First she'd nearly hung up on the blonde, next they'd had this weird but not weird silence, then Callie had thought that Arizona was going to reject her and now the Latina was listening to the blonde having, from her point of view, a one sided argument with her brother.

"No I'm not. She's not. I already told you, you have no chance." Arizona's voice continued, her words only widening the smirk that had accompanied her earlier chuckles.

"Oh shit. Fine." The sound of defeat in the voice at the other end of the line making Callie take pause. "I'm sorry Callie, I forgot that I've got a small job that I have to finish off later today for one of my neighbours houses, but I can swing by and get started tomorrow morning if you're around, say at 10 ish..?"

Callie's heart fluttered once again at the reply. She hadn't expected to be able to see the blonde again so soon. Not because she didn't want to, but because she was certain that Arizona would have had many other jobs on the go at the moment – Callie had taken the small amount of time since Arizona left and the phone call to, among other, much more mundane things, look up the carpenter's credentials. She came highly recommended. Her work was always said to be of a high standard and quality, not to mention that she was an amazingly vibrant person to be around. Oh. And that she had a cute butt… Okay, so maybe Callie had added that bit in at the end herself. If it's true, then it's true.

"Sure." Callie replied, trying to keep the eagerness out of her voice and remain cool. Last thing she wanted was for Arizona to think she was some crazy woman. "I'm looking forward to it."

"Me too. I can't wait."

* * *

"Goddammit…" Arizona grumbled as she accidently hit her thumb yet again with the hammer. This was the fourth time today and she'd taken the morning off. She was repairing her old piano teacher, Mrs Schoenberg's piece of crap coffee table, which in Arizona's honest opinion would have been better off dumped in a skip and forgotten about, but Mrs Schoenberg was a sentimental person and apparently this was one of the first things her and her husband had bought when they'd gotten married over 50 years ago.

It wasn't like the blonde to get clumsy with her tools. Usually hands work swiftly, deftly and precisely over any project she was tasked with completing, whether it was some serious construction work that required her undivided attention or repairing a broken coffee table. But today… Today she was distracted by the prospect of what was waiting for her tomorrow.

Letting her thoughts wander yet again, Arizona smiled lightly as she tried to suck the pain away from her now angry thumb. Tomorrow meant that she was going to get to see that miraculous creature that called herself Callie once again. The woman that Arizona hadn't gotten out of her head since the moment she'd first laid eyes on her. Which was the whole reason she now found herself in her current painful predicament. She was distracted, but Arizona really couldn't bring herself to care that much because the thing that was distracting her was so marvellously wonderful that it was worth a bruise or black nail or two.

Letting out a breath of relief as she sent the drilled the final screw home, Arizona set the table back upon it's legs, giving a quick test to make sure it was level, sitting on it to see if it could bear her weight.

Waving off the proffered money that Mrs Schoenberg was trying to force into her hand in payment, Arizona smiled genuinely at the woman, telling her it was on the house. After knowing someone for the majority of your life, the least you could do was to help them out every once in a while, right? And just because Arizona was a carpenter by trade didn't mean that she needed, or wanted to get paid for every favour that she did for a friend or family member. Arizona was a firm believer in doing things for other people even if they couldn't necessarily repay you, after all, have you ever really lived until you've done something for someone who can never truly repay you? Not that Arizona necessarily believed that last part to be true – people repaid her every day by doing the little things. The little things, in Arizona's opinion, were the things that counted the most.

Almost the second after she closed the door to her van, her phone started ringing its trademark Drive by Melissa Ferrick, the chorus blaring into the still silence of the van. Fishing the object out of her pocket and checking the caller ID, Arizona cringed slightly at the name and goofy face that appeared before her. She should probably change her ringtone to something slightly less sexual, especially when it was her brother ringing her. It was all just a little bit wrong.

Now if it was Callie who was ringing her…

"Hey Tim" Arizona greeted after swiping her finger across the screen to accept the call. "What's up? I just finished at Mrs Schoenberg's so I should be home soon."

"Hey." Tim replied in kind, his voice sounding slightly weary

"You okay?" Arizona asked, all the other thoughts being pushed out of her head once she heard how exhausted her brother sounded.

"Yeah, sis. I'm fine. I just…" Tim stopped in his tracks, Arizona well accustomed to the way her brother liked to internalise things. She was a master at it herself. "I've got a bit of a cold..."

"Oh." Arizona replied, knowing instantly why Tim was reluctant to tell her that he was ill. "I'll go and stay at Mom and Dad's, no worries."

"I'm sorry, sis. Really. I don't want to kick you out of your own house."

"It's fine, Tim. These things happen. Besides, it probably wouldn't even be a problem, but…" Now it was Arizona's turn to stop in her tracks, holding true to the family tradition of internalisation. "Y'know, I was thinking about you earlier."

"Oh. You were now were you?" The voice at the other end of the phone sounding slightly more jovial than before. "Only good things I hope."

"Well…" Arizona drawled, never one to miss an opportunity to enjoy a bit of banter with her older brother. "Mostly."

"I can deal with that." Tim replied, a small laugh turning into a string of increasingly nasty sounding coughs that made Arizona pull the phone slightly away from her ear.

"You sure you're okay?" Arizona asked once more, not fully believing her brother.

"I'm okay so long as you're okay, Arizona. Seriously." Tim answered, mock exasperation playfully lacing his tone.

"Right…" Arizona sighed. Her brother was pretty awesome. In all honesty, and on a most basic level, didn't know where she would be right now without him. "Love you."

"Love you too."

Hanging up the phone, Arizona turned the key in the ignition of the van, stepping on the gas pedal and heading in completely the opposite direction to where she thought she was going to be heading tonight. The only plus side was, today was Thursday, and that meant, if Arizona got a move on, she'd get to her parents' house just in time for some delicious fried chicken. What more could a girl ask for?!

* * *

**A/N 2: Why does studying entail so much reading? And why do I find it necessary to take classes in soil conservation? It is on this note that I would have to describe Callie and Arizona's relationship, on the whole, as a nice, wholesome Loam, with the occasional foray into silty sand and other unsatisfactory particle sizes, e.g. the whole Africa debacle. Enough said.**


	3. Renovations and Invitations

**FIX YOU**

**AN: Hope you guys enjoyed Grey's and the hour long escape from reality. Always sucks to get back to the real world, but life goes on and oftentimes leads you to very interesting revelations. Getting back to studying made me realise two things:**

**1. I still cannot go to morning lectures without having eaten breakfast/a banana before. I will fall asleep – it is inevitable. The same goes for classes at nap time, i.e. in the middle of the afternoon, and in the evening, and…**

**2. People only ever seem to use the LGBT office for their daily 5 free pages of printing - 10 if you print double sided ;). So riddle me this: where all my lesbians at? Or are the people who come in under the pretence of using the printer actually gay but not out yet? There's a social experiment in there somewhere…**

**3. There is no three because I only discovered two things.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own it, don't make money from it, just passing through – tumbleweed style.**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Renovations and Invitations**

Life is one of those things that most people take for granted. You breathe in, breathe out without ever really noticing. Your body changes constantly, blood is pumping through your veins, cells are dying and being renewed, but you live your life, go about your day completely unaware of the complexity that makes you, you.

Not, that is, until you've really, truly, been faced with your own mortality.

As a marine, Colonel Daniel Robbins had faced that on more than one occasion. In war, the sad truth was that it was either kill or be killed, so you did the former. You face your own mortality with a gun in hand, a gun that gives you the chance to create your own destiny. Kill or be killed.

But not everyone was lucky enough to face their own mortality with such favourable odds. Not everyone has the chance to face up to and go toe to toe with the ending of their very being with their own hands. Sometimes you have to rely upon those around you or upon people you've never met in your life to fight those battles for you. That, in the opinion of Col. Daniel Robbins, USMC, was the great tragedy, especially for the young – that there were some battles that destiny didn't let you fight.

"Mom, you have outdone yourself once again." Arizona managed to mumble out despite the inordinate amount of food pressed into her mouth. "Best ever!"

A small chuckle came in reply, Barbara Robbins always more than happy to feed her daughter, especially when she was so enthusiastic about her cooking.

"Didn't you say that last time, dear?" Barbara asked, shaking her head slightly at Arizona's antics, the mess around her face more resembling that of a 5 year old than a 25 year old.

Her daughter simply nodded in response, another mouthful keeping her tongue otherwise engaged. Barbara couldn't help but wonder how exactly the young blonde had managed to eat so much food in so little time. It was actually quite worrying, if she was honest. She loved her daughter dearly, and seeing her stomach explode from eating too much too quickly wasn't exactly something that Barbara wanted to see happen – or clean up after.

"Zona, you should slow down a bit. That food isn't running anywhere."

"Didn't _you_ say that last time?" Arizona teased, smirking as she gulped down the last of her current mouthful and taking a quick sip of water.

"Daniel, please tell your daughter to stop eating so quickly. I swear on my mother's recipe book she's going to explode." Barbara pleaded with her husband as her daughter took another monstrous bite, knowing one word from him was often worth a thousand from her.

"Arizona…" Daniel warned never looking up from the newspaper he was reading, the command in his voice having been perfected over a lifetime in the Marine Corps.

"Fine!" Arizona huffed, her arms crossing her chest as she continued to chew, slightly more slowly, on her current mouthful. "It's just that its soo tasty!"

Swallowing down the remaining food, Arizona smiled devilishly at her mother. "Mom, you're just too good of a cook. It's really not my fault. You should take it as a compliment."

"You could savour it you know." Barbara replied with a roll of her eyes, though a small smile could be seen tugging at her lips. "That'd be a compliment too."

"Don't have the willpower." The younger blonde stated with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Sure." Barbara drawled, knowing just how stalwart the blonde could be when she set her mind to something, especially if it involved some sort of competition with her brother.

Letting her daughter finish the remains of her meal, Barbara couldn't help but remember a time when she thought that she was going to lose her daughter, when she wouldn't eat – couldn't… When she was pale and thin as a rake, her body riddled with painful sores on her usually perfect skin. To think of the possibility that all that was going to happen again… Barbara couldn't stand it.

"So…" The elder woman whispered, a sudden weight being added to the atmosphere of the room once the seemingly innocent word was spoken.

"Uh-oh." Arizona sighed, dropping her fork on the plate with a clang. "I know that voice."

"How are you feeling?" The sympathy in her mother's voice almost more than Arizona could handle.

"Fine." Arizona responded shortly, getting up to put her now empty plate in the dishwasher, and to get some sort of distance between herself and the interrogation that her mother was no doubt about to spring on her.

"You sure?" Barbara continued from her position at the dining table in the same tone, making Arizona roll her eyes.

"I feel exactly as I always feel." Arizona replied sharply. She knew it was harsh and it was harder for her parents than for her, but goddammit if she didn't want to talk about it all the time. It was back. There was nothing she could do about it, other than take her treatments and go to the doctors, so she wasn't going to dwell on it for longer than she had to. Why the hell did Tim have to get ill? That would mean that she wouldn't be here answering to the Spanish Inquisition. He never asked the awkward questions…

"Work is okay?" Barbara asked trying to sound more nonchalant, but failing miserably.

"Yup." Her daughter answered, sticking, it seemed to one word answers.

"Not too strenuous." The elder Robbins continued, her façade of nonchalance quickly fading.

"Mom."

"I'm sorry dear. It's just that I worry about you." Barbara exhaled, her voice not above a whisper.

"I'm okay. I promise." Arizona sighed once again, rubbing her eyes as she leant backwards on the kitchen counter. "There are good days and bad days. Luckily there are way more good days than bad days. It's not as bad as before."

"I'm glad." A small smile pulled at the corner of Barbara's lips, happy that even though her daughter wasn't healthy like she wanted, she seemed happy and, at least, wasn't as ill as she had envisioned either.

"Me too, Mom." Arizona whispered, coming back to sit next to her mother. "Me too."

"I wish this hadn't happened to you Arizona. One time was bad enough, but again?"

Seeing her mother's eyes becoming glassy, Arizona grasps her mother's hand, squeezing it tightly – assuring the woman of her virility, letting her know that it was all going to be okay.

"They caught it early this time mom. It's going to be a walk in the park compared to last time." Arizona almost whispered. Last time had been hell, the treatments had been harsh and had hit her hard, but all in all, she had been lucky. She was standing here now, so she took that as a win, despite the fact that it was back – that she had to go through all that again just because her body seemed to think that she hadn't taken enough punishment from cancer before. "Besides, we always knew this was a possibility."

"Possibility and actuality are completely different things, Zona." Barbara sniffed, rubbing lightly at her eyes, wiping away a tear before it had a chance to fall.

"I'm sorry. I…" Arizona began, but the words died on her lips. How did you console the person who bore you, who bought you up, who has loved you unconditionally since the day you were born – perhaps even before? She hadn't had to deal with this before. When she'd first gotten Leukaemia, she'd been a teenager. Sure, her parents probably felt then exactly what they were feeling now, but she was younger, and they had been nothing but a tower of strength to her during that whole time, but now… Now it was different. Now she didn't need protecting – not quite so much, anyways.

"I love you." Arizona finished, the only words that she could find that would hopefully ease her mother's pain.

"Oh my little baby. I love you too."

* * *

Callie couldn't sleep. As much as she tried, the thought of seeing Arizona again kept her eyes from closing, kept her heart beating so fast that she could find no respite in sleep. Letting out a frustrated sigh and thrashing her legs about to try and find a more comfortable position, Callie attempted to calm her mind, reasoning that she wanted to look her best for the beautiful blonde carpenter that was coming tomorrow morning.

How ridiculous was this? She didn't even know the first thing about the woman and here she was, losing sleep over something that never was and may never be.

Callie closed her eyes once more, a deep breath being released from her tired body. Listening to the noise of the waves lapping leisurely against the shore, Callie couldn't help but let herself begin to imagine a certain blonde dressed in the world's tiniest teal coloured string bikini running into those waves, the salt water sliding smoothly over taught muscles, the partices catching the sun to illuminate her porcelain skin in a wondrous glow that had Callie almost believe she'd died and gone to gay heaven.

Licking her lips subconsciously, Callie watched as the blonde sauntered out of the water towards her, a mischievous smirk playing on her lips letting the Latina know that Arizona was all to well aware of what she was doing to her. Never blinking as Arizona's figure became ever increasingly closer, Callie couldn't help but gasp as the blonde made it within arm's reach, Callie's fingers literally itching to touch moist skin, her hands burrowing into the soft sand beneath her.

"Hi." The blonde smiled, the word so innocent, yet the fire burning in the woman's eyes anything but.

"Hey…" Callie breathed, her heart feeling as though it was about to beat out of her chest as she watched droplet after droplet of water fall down the woman's tight stomach and under the tiny bikini into forbidden territory.

Closing her eyes to try and rid her mind of the beautiful, completely inappropriate thoughts that were running through her head, the Latina gasped, a sudden pressure on her lips, the taste of salt invading her mouth mingled with something sweet, something that reminded Callie of cherries…

Hands grasping at hips for purchase, Callie drew the woman atop her closer into her body, deepening the kiss, the distance between them unbearable. The feel of Arizona's laugh into their kiss sent shivers down the Latina's spine - on one of the hottest days of the summer - the feel of cool hands playing at the base of her bosom making her breath hitch.

"Arizona…" Callie panted as fair hands moved slowly down her stomach, gently dipping into her navel before coming to rest at the hem of her bikini shorts. Looking up into the blonde's eyes, Callie moaned out in unadulterated pleasure, an unseen and unexpected finger slipping inside her soaked core, dragging across an engorged bundle of nerves as…

**BANG!**

A sudden, piercing bang jolted the Latina upwards, her eyes opening to the morning sun as she realised that the beach, the woman, the… all of it... was all a dream, a fantasy. The same could not be said for the wetness pooling in her panties, however.

Callie kicked around in her bed, the sheets having stuck to her sweat drenched legs made it hard for the woman to extricate herself efficiently from the bed prison that she found herself in. With a final grunt of annoyance, the sheets finally slid smoothly off of tanned legs, Callie immediately on her feet to run full pelt, down two stairs at a time towards the door. Not pausing once, flinging the door open, the only thing the Latina could think of to say when she's met with the beautiful face of the blonde woman of her dreams is:

"Yo."

Because, apparently, she is a 16 year old boy who dresses like a tool and enjoys drinking lukewarm beer in his parents' garage whilst reading his Dad's musty, old and supposedly hidden copies of Hustler.

_Way to go Calliope._

* * *

"Oh, y'know… This and that…" Arizona answered, her fingers dancing lightly over the exposed pipe, trying to gauge whether or not the plumbing needed gutting on top of all the other jobs that were piling up in the house. "But the thing I love doing most, at the moment at least, is surfing."

"Woah…" Callie replied, her eyebrows rising in surprise and respect – she'd never had the guts to go try it herself. "That's pretty intense!"

"I dunno about that, I don't think I'm good enough for it to get that intense!" Arizona chuckled, lifting herself to her feet and brushing the dust from the wooden floor off her knees. "You ride?"

"Oh… the waves?" Callie asked, shaking her head lightly. "No… I've never surfed, which is probably a bit strange seeing as I grew up in Florida."

"You grew up in Florida?" The blonde woman almost squealed, at which the Latina couldn't help but smile. Typically, Callie wasn't the type to find squealing cute, but on Arizona… It was cute and hot all at the same time.

"Yup." Callie smiled, looking at the floor when she couldn't keep eye contact with the blonde, the memories of her dream earlier coming flooding back to her. "Miami born and bred."

"I loved Miami!" Arizona cried, grabbing the Latina's forearm that was currently resting above her bosom, crossed with the opposite limb.

"You've been?" Callie inquired somewhat incredulously, it wasn't that Miami wasn't a popular tourist destination, but Callie found it hard to see what exactly the appeal was when the Pacific was right on the blonde's doorstep, right here, right now.

"Yeah, we drove down on one of the long weekends once when we lived in Jacksonville." Letting go of Callie's arm, Arizona walked the short distance to the dining table and picked up her clipboard full of, what Callie assumed were, notes, calculations and estimations.

"Don't tell me you're from Florida too!" The Latina questioned incredulously. It probably wasn't that strange to find someone else from Florida in the golden state, especially in the Los Angeles area, but she wasn't used to just running into people from her home state – most of the people she'd met in Seattle were from Washington which was to be expected, she supposed.

"Actually no, sorry to disappoint." Arizona apologised, clipboard still In hand as she stared into the Latina's deep brown eyes. "I was actually born in Virginia."

"Okay…" Callie drawled, raising her eyebrows at the blonde's confession. That's at least 3 different states in about 25 years, and not even ones that are that close to each other…

"My Dad is... was... a marine, so we moved around _a lot_." Arizona answered the unasked question, her voice almost drowned out by the sound of her pencil scribbling furiously on a piece of paper. "My brother Tim was born in Colorado, my mom is from Massachusetts and my Dad is Seattle through and through. Go Seahawks!"

"Nah-uh, go Dolphins!" The Latina jested, smiling at the memories of her childhood and the games she watched back home in Florida before remembering everything that had... occured in Seattle... "I just moved down from Seattle, actually."

"Really..?" Arizona replied slightly less enthusiastically than before, noticing the almost imperceptible change in the Latina's demeanour. "You should come and meet my dad, he loves talking about his childhood and Seattle, so I bet you guys would get on like a house on fire."

Halting mentally in her tracks, Callie did a double take. Did Arizona just invite her to come and visit her parents? Callie mentally berated herself once again. Why did her mind always make things more complicated than they needed to be?

"So… how long have you been living in California?" Callie implored, looking for any question that would distract her from the one that was currently floating around in her head.

"Long enough to call it home, I suppose." Arizona answered with a shrug, her eyes glued to the plumbing of the kitchen sink. "Part of me misses the open road though, y'know, hoboing it out for a bit. If I could…"

Arizona shook her head gently, squeezing her eyes shut tight against the angry thoughts that she knew were part and parcel of her illness. Sometimes you could be completely nonchalant, live by the ethos of live and let live, but other times… You got angry at everything that it meant you couldn't do – even if it was miniscule and wasn't even something you really wanted to do in the first place.

"Why don't you go? What stops you from 'hoboing it out'?" Callie enquired, genuinely interested in Arizona's answer. The more Callie found out about the woman the more she wanted to learn, and she was sure that this woman, this carpenter, this handywoman, had a lifetime of answers for Callie to discover.

"Life…" Arizona answered quietly, the cryptic answer bringing a cloud over the atmosphere of the room, making Callie wish she could take back the question and never ask it. Berating herself once again for bringing the jovial atmosphere down, Arizona decided to make amends. "Plus the fact that I'm pretty sure I would probably die within the first week, getting run over by a freight train or something."

Grinning mischievously Arizona tucked her pencil behind her ear and pulled the piece of paper she had been writing on roughly out of her clipboard and folded it in half before handing it gently to the Latina.

"This, is for you." Arizona smiled almost shyly before quickly stepping backwards towards the door. "I'm just going to pop out to my van and get some supplies so we can get started here. I think stripping off the old plaster from the walls is as good a place to start as any."

"Right…" Callie replied, her hand still held out towards the blonde, the piece of paper in it still tightly folded.

Watching the blonde woman leave the house, Callie mentally berated herself. She really did hate to see that woman go, but boy, did she like to watch her leave. Remembering the piece of paper in her hand, Callie peeled the page open, an instant smile forming on her face at the image laid out before her. Rather than the prices, costs and estimations Callie had thought that Arizona was calculating all the time the pair had been weaving their way around the house, the blonde woman had actually been drawing.

The face that met her was a mirror of her very own, long black hair framing the shy smile playing on her lips. The detail within the eyes looking back at her, the way Arizona had managed to capture the light dancing within them, had Callie enraptured. As she traced her fingers lightly across the pencil lines of her own jaw, Callie's eyes were drawn to her own lips, just as striking as her own eyes.

Jumping at the noise of the old door creaking open, Callie's grip on the precious paper faltered, the leaf floating impossibly slowly towards the ground, the Latina seemingly unable to stop its disastrous descent in a world of slow motion.

Helplessly watching as a sun kissed arm gently cradled the portrait out of the air, Callie snapped her eyes up to her saviours – to the eyes that she dreamt about, those pools of azure that belonged to one Arizona Robbins.

"You draw… Can you do everything, Arizona Robbins?" Callie whispered, a breathy quality about her voice, the thermostat feeling as though it had been turned up 1000 degrees in mere seconds.

"I only draw beautiful women, Callie." The blonde smiled back, mischief playing on magenta lips. "And… Maybe… People do tell me that I'm gifted with my hands."

* * *

**A/N 2: Found out where the experiment was from earlier. Research begins first thing Thursday morning. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please let me know what you think! Also, if you have any ideas as to where you want this story to be heading, then hit me up! I'm all ears. No literally, my body is made out of ears. Creepy…**


	4. Mixing Work and Pleasure

**FIX YOU **

**A/N: Sorry for the delay in posting, tempus fugit **** Not sure how I feel about this one. I'll let you judge. See you on the flip side!**

**Did a super quick proof-read so sorry if anything is especially weird/there are any terrible typos etc. Please forgive me?**

**Disclaimer: It usually goes here, right?**

* * *

**Chapter Four: Mixing Work and Pleasure  
**

Callie knew she probably looked like slightly crazy right now, but she just could help it. The grin that had been plastered on her face since Arizona had drawn that immaculate picture of her, a photo that was now framed and placed next to her bed, had been a permanent feature on Callie's lips. Even the opening of the heavens on the one day she forgot to bring her unbrella couldn't dim the megawatt smile – and anyone who knows LA rain knows that when it rains, it pours. So she probably looked like crazy – walking around the store with dripping wet hair, her converse squeaking merrily with each step she took as the Latina guided the cart expertly up and down aisle after aisle, Callie's mind anywhere but focused on grocery shopping.

She'd actually kind of shocked herself, the Latina. She was never usually the one to make the first move, to initiate any form of relationship that would go beyond the platonic, but with Arizona… Everything felt different. Besides, looking back at her track record, it probably wasn't a bad thing that she'd broken the mould. Or had she..? Arizona had been the one to call her beautiful first…

Shaking the thoughts out of her head, Callie attempted to direct her attention to the grocery list pinned to her cart. She needed to focus if she was going to get the ingredients she needed to make sure that the semi-surprise she had in store for the blonde haired angel, whom she could keep out of her head, was perfect and spectacular and almost as amazing as the woman it was intended for, and that meant Callie had her work cut out for her. To most people, it probably didn't seem like that big a deal… But Callie never made the first move… She'd said – in passing – that maybe Arizona should join her for dinner one night, seeing as she was probably going to be spending a lot of time at her house as it was. It was only proper, after all, and her parents hadn't raised her to forget all those etiquette lessons that she had been force fed since she was nine, oh, indeed not. It was just happy luck that it also meant that Callie got to spend time with the one person she couldn't get out of her mind.

Cinnamon. She needed cinnamon.

Callie had already decided that she liked this small independent market type food store just a twenty minute walk from her house. It was the closest place her GPS had found the first night she'd gotten into her new house, and with bare cupboards and an empty belly, Callie had almost sprinted the mile to he store in her hunger, and had been pleasantly surprised at what she had found. The shelves were well stacked, with a wide variety of different brands, some foreign goods that you couldn't get easily in the United States, specialist items for all of your cake baking needs and fresh fruit and vegetables that smelled almost as good as they tasted. In another life, strange as it may seem, Callie was pretty certain that she had been a greengrocer.

Plucking a small packet off of one of the many shelves, Callie gazed down at her shopping list, mentally checking off, one by one, the items she already had gathered into her cart.

Chicken. Check.

Capers. Check.

Cinnamon. Definitely check.

Flour…

Swinging her cart around the corner of the next aisle, Callie stopped abruptly on her heels, the feel of her cart hitting a semi-soft obstacle making her cringe.

"Oh my God!" Callie exclaimed, rushing around her now abandoned shopping cart to apologise to the human pin cushion she had just impaled. This was another reason she really needed to pay attention. "Are you okay?"

Not being able to see the face of her victim, Callie was unsure as to their reaction. Would they be angry? Would they simply shrug it off? Would they mow her down with their own cart in an act of glorious vengeance in front of all the patrons of the store, crying 'revenge is a dish best served cold bitch!'? Callie wasn't sure. All that she knew was that the person was extremely tall, and muscular. From behind, Callie could tell that this person took care of their body, and their arms… His arms, because no woman, no matter how muscular, could ever hope to have arms as buff as these. To top it off was a messy mop of blonde hair that instantly reminded the Latina of Arizona, that now familiar feeling rising in her stomach at the very thought of the blonde woman's name. In fact, Callie would say that if she wasn't completely hung up on a woman that she'd only met a matter of days ago, she would undoubtedly be drooling right at this very moment.

"Don't worry about it!" Her victim's cheery voice chuckled as he turned to face her. "I've had much worse. I can assure you."

Blowing out a sigh of relief at the fact that she seemingly wasn't about to meet a very graphic and sadistic Quentin Tarantino style end, the smile that was forming on her lips quickly fell into a look of complete awe at what she saw.

Could it be?

"Are you okay..?" The man asked, a slither of amusement audible within his voice, matching the look on his face.

Callie couldn't believe it. He… This man… Looked exactly like the woman that had been the main character in all of her dreams since she'd met her. And it wasn't just a faint hint of Arizona, no. It was the whole kit and caboodle. The first thing Callie had noticed was the eyes. As blue as the ocean whose waves lulled her to sleep at night, Callie couldn't help but stare into them, the face of this mystery man morphing into the delicate features of her carpenter.

"Yeah… Sorry…" Callie mumbled, the blush on her cheeks deepening as she realised just how long she must have been stood staring at this complete stranger for. "You just… Reminded me of someone I know."

"Oh really..?" The exact same amused tone replied, the dimpled smile that followed it almost dropping Callie to her knees. "Good looking I hope."

"Extremely." Callie answered in a heartbeat. There was never any question about that subject.

"Well…" The familiar stranger smiled, offering his hand in greeting, "Thank you, I guess. My name's Tim by the way."

Taking the proffered hand, Callie returned the smile.

"Callie. Callie Torres. It's nice to meet you."

"Wait…" Tim answered, the smile on his face turning into a knowing smirk at the sound of the Latina's name. "Callie Torres… Who bought the house on the beach?"

"Yeah… How'd you know?" Callie enquired, trying to rack through her brain if she had met this person before, but had somehow forgotten. Sure, she wasn't the best person at remembering faces straight off, but she was pretty certain she had never met this man before. He hadn't seemed as though he recognised her earlier either... That was, at least, until she had told him her name.

"You know my sister." Tim stated simply, the ever present smile still gracing his face, a sparkle in his blue eyes.

"Your sister…"

The pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place in Callie's mind. How had she not figured it out earlier? He looked EXACTLY like her. She'd been awe struck by the similarities, but hadn't put it together until now – until Tim had pointed out what was staring her straight in the face.

Her mind was obviously in other places.

"Yeah! Arizona Robbins." Tim continued excitedly, "She can't stop talking about you. It's Callie this, Callie that…"

"Really..?" The Latina blushed self-consciously. She couldn't stop thinking or talking about Arizona either, but to know that Arizona was doing the same thing, about her… The shy smile that appeared on her plump lips was all the answer that anyone could ever need.

"Really." Arizona's male doppelganger confirmed. "So… You like my sister?"

"Yeah." Callie replied breathily, just thinking about the woman made her head go fuzzy, a warmth rising in the pit of her stomach.

"Wait…" Tim slowed, his eyebrows scrunching in the exact same way the Latina had seen Arizona's do countless times whilst she was thinking over a problem – usually something to do with plumbing or retaining walls or something of the sort. "Oh Jesus! I reminded you of her didn't I? I reminded you of a girl. Way to go Tim."

Laughing at the man's antics as she pushed her cart down the aisle, Callie called back to her new acquaintance.

"It was nice to meet you Tim."

"You too." Tim shouted towards the retreating form of the Latina, admiring the sway of her hips and finally understanding just what had his sister so quickly smitten with this woman. "Uh, Callie..."

Turning her body around, Callie nodded lightly in response, stopping her feet to stay in hearing range of her new friend.

"Yes..?"

"Don't let her push you away." Tim replied quietly. His sister was a pro at pushing people she liked away just when things were getting serious because she was afraid. Because she was ill, because she didn't know where her life was heading and simply just because she was scared. Frankly, Tim was tired of it. It was about time that his sister allowed herself some happiness, and he was going to be damned if he was going to just sit by, once again, and watch Arizona sabotage herself once again. "She has her reasons, but don't let her, because at the end of it all, all of those reasons count for nothing if you love someone."

Love someone..? Callie had only just met this woman, and her brother – a person whom she had _literally_ just met – was telling her to not let his sister push her away if she loved her…

"I won't…" Callie whispered. "I won't."

* * *

"Hello..?" Arizona called, pushing the door open when no reply came from the multiple knocks she had administered to the hardwood door she had installed only a couple of days before. "Callie?"

Walking further into the house, all the while looking out for the woman she so desperately craved to see, a delightful smell suddenly hit Arizona's nose, her mouth salivating instantly at the aroma. Moaning involuntarily, Arizona's feet led her on autopilot towards the origin of the sweet scent, the portion of her brain that was still functioning hoping that the journey also bought her to the Latina, as well as the source of the enticing food.

"Callie..?" Arizona called once again, her feet still beyond her control. Taking the time to look at the house in all its grand glory once again, Arizona couldn't help but feel as in awe of the place as she had when she had first stepped foot in it. Sure, her eyes had been within these walls nearly 24/7 since the first step she had taken across the threshold, but that was always looking at the minutia. The little things, the small niggles that you don't necessarily notice until they're not there anymore – until you realise how, once those little niggles are fixed, much more beauty can be found in a space once they are removed, destroyed, obliterated. Not that every niggle was necessarily bad. Some niggles add character, they tell a story. The lines on the doorframe spell out the childhood of a young girl who grew up in this house. The scratches on the ceiling evidence of a Christmas tree that was much too ambitious for the headspace, but was bought in nether-the-less. The stories of family and of love that Arizona remembered from her own childhood, just in a different place and at a different time, were reflected back at her in the very fibre of this house, its very essence.

"Arizona?" The lush voice of the Latina caressed Arizona's ear, bringing her out of her reverie and back to the present day. "Is that you?"

"Callie!" The blonde repeated, her feet hastening towards the sound – which just so happened to be, as she had suspected, in the same direction as the delectable fragrance. "Where are you?"

"In the kitchen!" Upon reflection, Arizona had to admit, that was probably one of the more silly questions she had ever asked. It wouldn't have really taken a brain surgeon to work that one out, now would it?

"Oh my God, Callie!" Arizona moaned, the full force of the sweet aroma finally hitting the blonde from the food that Callie was currently preparing. "This smells like it is better than orgasms."

"Woah…" Callie chuckled, looking up from her cooking ministrations to take in the sight of the blonde. What she found there momentarily took her breath away. Used to seeing Arizona in her work clothes, jeans, a simple white tank top and timberlands was hot enough as it was, but Arizona in that dress… Arizona's mouth had been salivating at the anticipation of Callie's cooking, but Callie's mouth was salivating at something completely different. And much less innocent. "It must smell pretty good."

"Mmmhmmm…" Arizona hummed, closing her eyes as she inhaled deeply. So she liked to eat. Sue her. "You look gorgeous."

Callie blushed at the compliment, although she couldn't believe for one second that she looked quite as good as the blonde did. The Latina had decided that, even though it was probably a bit nerdy of her, she was going to go all out tonight – the whole hog, per se – and dredge up the ever faithful and eternally sexy little black dress. The hem hit her leg at mid-thigh, revealing the soft caramel flesh usually hidden beneath, mirrored by the singular shoulder strap, holding her dress just above her ample bosom, yet still managing to tease at the delights hidden below.

"Thank you." Callie whispered in response, unable to stop the blush that was now rapidly filling her cheeks. There was just something about the way Arizona was looking at her, a predator to their prey, a darkening in her cerulean eyes that had Callie throbbing. "So do you."

"What? This old thing?" Waving off Callie's words with comedic nonchalance, Arizona smiled genuinely, the dimples popping delicately at her cheeks.

Arizona couldn't remember a time when she had been so completely taken by a woman before. They had done nothing. They hadn't really talked even, yet there was something about her. It's like there was a drug in the air when the Latina was around her, like she was getting high from the very sight, the very scent of Callie and Arizona couldn't get enough. In the short time that she had known Callie, Arizona had become unequivocally addicted.

"What have you got cooking?" Arizona asked, breaking the spell of silence and unhidden glances that had fallen between the two. "It smells almost as delicious as you look."

At a loss for words, a shy smile growing on her lips, it took Callie a good few seconds before she could respond.

"Umm…" The Latina stumbled, "Pasta Puttanesca. It's nothing fancy, I didn't know what you would want so I went for something simple and…." Cutting herself off mid ramble, all Callie could do was to laugh lightly, her hand sweeping away the imaginary sweat that felt as though it was pouring from her forehead. "It's the dessert that's the best part."

"Pasta Puttanesca sounds delicious, Calliope."

"How'd you…"

"Know that your name was Calliope?" Arizona finished, Callie simply nodding in reply. The Latina wasn't usually one to let people call her by her full name. She'd had enough of a hard time with it all the way through school to bring it with her into the real world. "I saw it on some of the mail you left on the coffee table the other day. I hope you don't mind me using it; it's just that it is such a beautiful name. It fits you so perfectly."

"Yeah, well, that's not what people at high school seemed to think." Callie scoffed, returning her attention to the saucepan in front of her.

"Arizona wasn't the easiest either." The blonde chuckled. "If it taught me one thing in life, it was to take no crap. Plus, I guess being the daughter of a marine and being taught how to punch, and punch hard so you only have to punch once was a bonus. Not that my mother really agreed with all that, but I could tell that, even though he had to be stern in front of my Mom, my Dad was secretly proud."

"Your father was a marine?" Callie asked inquisitively, her eyebrows raised a mixture of shock and respect.

"Born and bred." Arizona replied. She would talk about her Dad until the cows came home if she could. He was her idol, the person she aspired to be like growing up, and it wasn't just a little due to the fact that he was a marine. Ever since she was young, Arizona had been obsessed with the military. She'd been pretty much set to join until the cancer set in… "His father was a marine too."

"Wow…" Callie gulped, her attention returning to the food she was currently serving onto two of her favourite china bowls from the crockery set that her grandmother had left her when she passed.

"What?" Arizona smiled, tilting her head in amusement at the Latina's reaction.

"Well… He probably knows at least 100 ways to kill me, and you are his daughter so…"

"Calliope! My Dad would never!" Arizona laughed, clutching her sides as she began to shake before returning to a posture of deathly seriousness. "Actually, there was this one time…"

"Oh Jesus!" Callie cried, suddenly extremely anxious. Sure, she hadn't actually _done_ anything with Arizona yet, and this was, in some ways, hard pressed to be called a real date, but the things she had already done with this woman in her head… Definitely anything but innocent.

"I'm joking, Calliope." Arizona comforted, rubbing her hand gently along the Latina's arm – enjoying the warmth her fingers found in the caramel skin. "I know straight up that the moment any member of my family meets you, they will be instantly smitten. Here, let me take that."

Gently taking the proffered steaming bowls from the Latina's strong hands, careful not to burn herself on the molten contents inside, Arizona carefully made her way slowly but surely to the rickety old dining table.

"I should have fixed this earlier." Arizona chuckled as the table wobbled slightly from the newly added weight of the food.

"You," Callie replied as she came to join the blonde at the table, pulling the chair out for her guest and gesturing her to have a seat on a brand new (definitely not broken) chair. "Have been doing much more important things, for which I am eternally grateful. Your work is beautifully crafted."

"It's just my job, Calliope." Arizona blushed once again. She was never one to get embarrassed by her work – she was proud of it. She was good at what she did and she didn't mind that other people knew it – in fact, it was one of the main way that she got work. When Callie told her what so many others, however… It made her feel humble, feel warm inside like being sat next to the fire on a snowy winters day, fingers clasped around a warm mug of hot chocolate.

"Now. Wine?" Callie enquired, a bottle of red and white wine presented in either hand, accompanied by a playful bobbing of the head.

"Umm…" Arizona blushed, suddenly feeling very aware of herself. Her doctor had told her it was probably fine to have a drink every now and then – they'd even gone so far as to say that it may even help with appetite if she ever lost it due to the chemo. Not that that was a problem at all at the moment. "I think I'll pass if that's okay. I'm driving anyway, so…"

"Oh. Yeah, sure! I should have thought of that earlier. Definitely no drinking and driving going to be going on here." "Lemme just see if I have anything else…"

Watching as Callie made her way quickly back into the kitchen, Arizona admired the view. Sucking in a deep breath the blonde's mouth once again began salivating, her body once again aware of the tantalising meal that had been prepared for her now that the Latina was out of sight.

Callie rummaging around kitchen. Arizona taking in the scent of the food, once again salivating /still salivating!

"Yeah… So this was just too good to pass up." Callie appeared at the doorway after a sequence of bangs and clinking of glasses, holding nothing else but a can of Arizona Iced Tea. "Sorry."

"Original, Calliope. Real original." Arizona smirked as she held her hand out in gratitude for the can of liquid heave.. "I love this stuff! They named it after me, you know."

"Oh really..?"Callie smiled as she sat herself down at the table once again, never taking her eyes off her companion. "Do pray tell."

"Well… It's a long story…"

* * *

"The food was delicious, Calliope." Arizona repeated. Their meal had finished a good two hours ago, the two women having retreated to the comfort of the sofa where they had just talked. Arizona knew it sounded corny, but really they'd just talked. Everything that the Latina said was fascinating, Calliope seemed to have a unique outlook on life and by the way she spoke, it was obvious to Arizona that this woman was extremely smart.

"Thank you Arizona, but really, it wasn't anything special…" Callie attempted once again to play down, and once again, Arizona was having none of it.

"Don't tell my mother this but…" Arizona lowered her tone into a conspiratorial whisper, leaning in towards Callie. "I think you've outdone her."

"Arizona!" Callie chuckled, enjoying the close proximity of the blonde, her mind turning down the inevitable track whenever she was with the woman.

"I mean it." Arizona responded in kind, enjoying the way Callie's laugh travelled through her whole body – the rise and fall of her breast a mouth-watering sight. "25 years of being fed and you've beaten her with one meal."

"Now I feel bad." Callie answered, the laughter slowly dying on her breath.

"You shouldn't. You're amazing. You know, you should be a chef or something. I would be in your restaurant every single day. Scratch that. I be in there frickin' 24/7!"

"Well I did want to be a chef when I was younger…" Callie admitted shyly.

"So… Why didn't you?" Arizona let the question hang in the air, Callie seemingly looking for the appropriate reply.

"My parents…" The Latina stated simply as she placed her empty coffee mug back on the table. "It really wasn't, I dunno… High powered enough for them."

"Oh…" Arizona scrunched her face up in confusion. Her parents had never been bothered about whether her job was 'high-powered' enough or not. The idea that people actually thought like that in real life and not just in the movies was something new to the blonde.

"My family… They're all in business, you know, they're all about making money. It's profit margins this, and tax deductions this. They're good at it; it just all becomes a bit tedious sometimes."

"Yeah… Arizona replied dryly. She couldn't ever imagine thinking like that. Sure, she ran a business, but she did it mainly because she liked it, and she could scrape a good enough living from it. Besides, she'd read a study somewhere that quantified that money didn't necessarily equal happiness, and that's all she really wanted – happiness. Especially when she wasn't sure how long she was going to be here for. "So… I know it's probably a bit late to be asking this, but what do you do? I mean, you told me at dinner you weren't a chef, and then you say that your family wanted you to be 'high powered'…"

"I'm actually a surgeon." Callie smiled, feeling once again as though the whole world was watching her, the pink blush returning to her cheeks as she swirled the remainder of the coffee that had been made over an hour ago around in her mug. "Orthopedics."

"No shit." Arizona asked incredulously, almost spitting her coffee, which had by this point gone cold, all over the beautiful woman in front of her. "That is pretty awesome. You going to practice here?"

"Actually, yeah. I landed a residency spot at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. My first day is tomorrow."

"Oh wow! Calliope! That's amazing!"

Before she knows it, Arizona had Callie enclosed in a tight hug, the intoxicating smell of the blonde invading her senses like a virus invades a body. Arizona must have felt it too, as before Callie could think another word, hot, wet lips attached to her own, a soft tongue exploring every crevice of her mouth.

Acting on impulse, Callie couldn't help herself when she pulled on the blonde's hips, thrusting them bodily into her own pelvis, needing to feel the heat of the other woman's body next to hers, the pressure of her throbbing clit becoming almost too much.

Arizona moaned into Callie's mouth, the vibrations of the guttural sound penetrating the Latina's body down to her core, only stoking the growing fire in her groin, causing Callie to respond in kind. Taking one of the hands that was employed cupping the Latina's face, Arizona began gently kneading Callie's breast through the fabric of her low cut dress – the cleavage on the article almost killing her – Arizona felt the Latina respond almost instantly, her nipple becoming hard and erect under her ministrations, Callie's hips gyrating rhythmically beneath the carpenter.

Breaking the kiss before she has the willpower to stop it from becoming anything more, Arizona disengaged her lips, placing her forehead gently against Callie's, their heavy breathing mingling in the small space between them.

"I had a wonderful night, Calliope." Arizona whispered, the capacity for anything more vocally taxing eluding the blonde, her mind more focused on other, much less innocent, topics. "But I'd better go… Don't want to make you late for your first day."

"I had a great night too..." Callie replied in kind, sighing gently at bodily contact as Arizona moved to stand, of the empty feeling left in her mouth at the absence of the blonde's tongue.

"I'll see you tomorrow..."

With a quick peck on the cheek, and like a whirlwind, the carpenter left Callie sitting on her sofa, her mouth agape and her brain fuzzy as she tried to make heads or tails of what just happened. She knows that she shouldn't be feeling like this just from a kiss (okay, so a little bit more than a kiss), but goddammit, if it wasn't one of the best she's ever had. The taste of the blonde still on her lips made the Latina moan in a mixture of pleasure and want - needing to taste her, to feel her again next to her. Callie wasn't sure what exactly it was about that woman, but… All she knew was that she couldn't think straight when the woman was half a city away, let alone in her house, and the ache in her stomach that was a perpetual presence whenever Callie thought or saw the blonde wasn't something that could be easily ignored.

Forgetting about the dirty dishes and the mess in the kitchen, Callie decided to run herself a bath, ease the muscles that so very longed to be strained, to be pleasured to feel the warmth of another person loving them.

"Jesus…" Callie moaned, for what must have been the hundredth time this week as she slipped the strap off her shoulder, letting the fabric of her dress pool at her feet and revealing tantalisingly pert breasts, soft brown nipples now erect from the slightest of touches from Arizona. "I'm so fucking screwed."

* * *

Arizona threw herself into the driver's seat of her van. She can't get that woman out of her head, she's intoxicated even though she hasn't had a drop to drink all evening.

What was it about the Latina that made every nerve ending in Arizona's body tingle? It's like… Living your whole life thinking you can see perfectly, then one day going to the optician and they tell you that you need glasses. They're wrong, you say – you can see perfectly, but when you put on those glasses… The awe of the world, the leaves falling from the trees in winter, each singular feather on that fat little robin… It's magic and you could never have imagined could exist, its beauty is unparalleled, mesmerising, brings tears to your eyes it moves you so much.

"Fuck…" Arizona breathed, banging her head into the head-rest behind her, her eyes closed as she fumbled around with the key for the ignition. "I'm so screwed."

* * *

**A/N 2: I think I may have stolen that whole glasses thing from Erica. Eww… It's definitely much cuter on Arizona ;) Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Hopefully you can forgive me my tardiness! **


	5. Coffee and Chemotherapy

**FIX YOU **

**A/N: Chapter updates on both my stories in the span of two days? What has happened to the world!**

**Sorry about how long this has taken to get out, I finally got a free moment and so here we are! How are you guys feeling about the whole finale and Calzona? Shonda can't resist amping up the drama, can she? First the leg, now this!**

**Disclaimer: In fantasyland, this belongs to me. In reality, however, all characters etc. belong to Shonda Rhimes.**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Coffee and Chemotherapy**

"She's up all night to the sun, I'm up all night to get some, she's up all night for good fun, I'm up all night to get lucky!" Arizona sings at the top of her lungs, the volume turned up to eleven, the window of her truck rolled all the way down and the blonde adding in her own dance moves within the confines of her truck's cab.

Usually her trips to the hospital aren't this perky. But today... Well… Today, she's planning on surprising a certain Latina who cooks like a saint and has the body of a goddess. Hence excitement finding it's outlet in car dancing, and not even caring about the stares she's getting. Some people actually join in…

Pulling into the parking lot, paying the meter and skipping, yes skipping, to the elevator, Arizona can't help but feel that today is going to be a good day. That today is going to be the day that everything changes. The chemo is going to start kicking leukaemia's butt, she's going to get to see Callie in scrubs, which, seeing as the woman is a goddess and could make a trash bag look like Versace, is going to be frickin' awesome! Never in her life did Arizona think she'd be riding this high from one kiss and a little over the shirt action, but… here she is! Even her parents couldn't help but comment on their daughter's perky attitude when she came home last night.

**Flashback - **

"Hello dear parents!" Arizona smiled – the same one she was wearing as she left Callie's beach house. "How has your evening been?"

"Arizona!" Barbara exclaimed, her daughter's smile so infectious that the elder Robbins can't help but smile herself. "You seem particularly perky tonight!"

"Why shouldn't I be? The grass is green, the birds are singing and life is good-ish!" The carpenter continued, hugging her mother tightly before jumping the first step of the stairs.

"Okay…" Barbara responded, her smile turning into a confused grin as she looks to her husband, her expression perfectly mirrored on his face.

"Have you been drinking Arizona? Drugs…" Daniel asked, drawing out the last word quietly as though he'd rather not know.

"Not father dearest, I am not drunk." The young blonde laughed merrily, sighing contentedly as she caught her breath. "Except on life."

"Oh Jesus." Daniel replied, stuffing his head back into the paper he was enjoying reading before the world started to implode.

"And as for drugs, the only drug I have been around tonight is a gorgeous Latina, 5'9", long legs and a heavenly cook."

"Ahh!" Barbara smiled in understanding, patting her daughter gently on arm. "Went that well did it?"

Hop-skipping up the stairs, Arizona almost dances in her excitement and happiness.

"Better."

**End Flashback –**

"Hi Julie" Arizona greets the nurse passing her in the other direction with a wave as she makes her way to the chemotherapy ward. Her feet guide her on autopilot to her destination, having been here so many times, Arizona could easily find her way there with her eyes closed after she'd been spun around a couple of times.

Greeting a few of the other nurses that she has become familiar with in the time that she has been a patient amongst these four walls, Arizona leans gently against the nurse's station just outside of the chemotherapy lounge before entering. She hated that room. It was clinical and morbid and reminded the blonde of what cancer and chemotherapy did to people. Each one of them was a regular to the chemotherapy ritual, but some people had it worse than others. Either their cancer was more advanced, more aggressive, or their bodies just couldn't handle the amount of toxicity that was being pumped into their veins quite so well. Whichever it was, it all served to remind Arizona that she wasn't the young, healthy and vibrant person that she was in her head. She was sick, just as sick as many of the people in this room. And it scared her, the tubes, the hollow eyes, the gaunt expressions, the brittle hair. It all scared her.

"Arizona." A familiar voice pulls the blonde out of her reverie, a smile instantly covering the fright that had earlier been etched across her features.

"Hey Dr Bailey. How are you today?" Dr Bailey. A tough chick, hard on her interns, but an amazing doctor and an extraordinary woman. Dr Bailey was one of Arizona's favourite doctors around the hospital, one, because she was her doctor and two, because she kicked butt, all 5 foot of her.

"Well… If my interns were competent then I would be much better, but it seems they are intent on being inept, and so I have to pick up the slack." The short doctor huffs, putting an arm full of charts on the nurses' station before turning back to Arizona.

"Interns." Arizona berates with a roll of her eyes, always enjoying Bailey's rantings about her interns. She was just glad that they all had Bailey watching their backs; otherwise, she might be just a little bit scared of these junior doctors…

"You in for chemo again?" Bailey asks needlessly, she knew all too well what the blonde was in for.

"You know it doc. Can't get enough of the stuff."

Laughing lightly at her patient, Bailey glances down at her watch before pointing into the room of reminders.

"Well… You know the drill. I've got a bit of spare time so why don't I set you up today?"

"It would be an honour, Dr Bailey." Arizona genuinely smiles. She knows that the Resident has a busy schedule, so the fact that she's taking time to do something as mundane as set up her chemo is touching.

"And how many times do I have to tell you, it's Miranda!" Bailey laughs, shaking her head in amusement as the two move into the room.

"Probably at least once more, Dr Bailey."

* * *

Today has been hectic, as Callie had expertly predicted. It wasn't necessarily that she had a high case load, in fact, it being her first day and all, she had no existing case load… but the paper work. There was a small forest somewhere that had just turned into a small grove with the amount of paper and contracts she'd had to sign. After that, she'd had to go down to admin, get her ID generated, her signature put on file and stored electronically, and then it was time for the official meet and greet amongst her new department.

All in all, it had been a terribly boring, but terribly busy start to the day that had the Latina dead on her feet a mere 8 hours into her 12 hour shift. Right now, all she really wanted to do was to find an on call room, slip off her shoes, dump her body on a bunk and pass out. But it was her first day… she didn't want to appear weak. She needed to show that she could play with the big boys, that she wasn't daunted by her new environment, by being the new girl.

So Callie did work. She took consult after consult, surprised as to the lack of supervision she was being given by the head of department seeing as it was her first day. It's not like she didn't know what she was doing, on the contrary, she was a rock star with a scalpel, but they didn't know that. Callie shook it off, having that pair of eyes looking at her all the time would have had her on edge anyways.

Just as she was adding the finishing touches to the chart of a 12 year old boy who'd suffered a compound fracture of his humerus after falling out of a particularly large tree, Callie hears a deep, gravelly voice behind her.

"Why… hello there." The voice greets suggestively, Callie putting on her best friendly smile as she turned to the owner of the voice, despite the fact that she can already tell where this guy's mind is heading.

"Hi." The Latina replies simply, keeping her tone cordial as she looks the owner of the voice up and down. He's hot! A strong chin and jawline lightly dusted with stubble distinguished by just a hint of grey in the man's hair. From what Callie can make out, the man keeps himself fit, pecs clearly visible underneath his scrub top with not a hint of flab about him. Yet he still pales in comparison to Arizona.

"Mark Sloan. Plastics." The man holds out his hand, offering it to the Latina in greeting.

"Callie Torres. Uhh, Ortho." Callie takes the proffered hand, impressed by the strength of the handshake the man posesses. There's nothing Callie hated more than a wet fish of a handshake. It just makes things… awkward.

"Nice." Mark replies, nodding his head in appreciation of, Callie can only assume, her specialty. "Say, I don't think I've seen your face around here before. You new?"

"Yeah, actually. It's my first day today." The Latina blushes slightly, unable to hold eye contact with the man, instead being more content to inspect her shoelaces.

"Woah. Okay. Well… Welcome to Ronald Reagan."

"Thanks, Mark." A genuine smile spreading across the Latina's features. Maybe this guy wasn't as much of a creep as she had first thought.

"Hey, you want to hang out later? A lot of the staff members here go out to this bar, not too far from here… Could introduce you to some of your colleagues if you like."

Callie mulled it over. On the one hand, she really didn't want to end up going to a bar with Mark all alone, she, after all, didn't know anyone else in the hospital to validate his story, plus he had been undressing her with his eyes since the moment she'd turned around, not to mention he was definitely a boob man. On the other hand, the Latina really wanted to get to know some of the people she was going to be working with, and sooner rather than later. Connections and good working relationships were key when working in a hospital, plus it was just easier and more pleasant for everyone when you were nice to them.

Trying to rack her brain for a solution, a wry smile finds its way to Callie's lips.

"Sure… Is it alright if I bring someone?" Callie asks, watching Mark's eyes for any sign of uneasiness or disappointment. Nothing. Either this guy was really just looking to be friendly or he believes that he's the big kahuna… Yeah, right!

"Sure thing Torres, the more the merrier. Give me your number and I'll text you the deets."

_Please don't be busy tonight Arizona…_

* * *

"Urgh… I swear this gets worse everytime." Arizona groans, wanting to curl up into a ball right there in the middle of the hospital hallway.

"It sure does." Her friend, Teddy Altman replies knowingly. Being a kick-ass doctor much like Bailey, she knows these things.

"You know. I thought that in hospitals, there was this thing called the Hippocratic oath. Do no harm and all that jazz." The blonde moans, the chemicals that have just been pumped into her system making her stomach flip.

"This is the most effective way…" Her friend starts to recite, this line of conversation having been followed multiple times after one of Arizona's chemo sessions.

"I know, I know… It just sucks super hard!"

"Just take it easy for the rest of the day, okay. Your body is waging a massive war inside right now. Give it every advantage it can to win."

"Don't worry, Teds, I'm going Rambo on this mother fuckers ass."

"Stallone reference. Nice." Teddy laughs, giving her friend a nudge in the shoulder as the two make their way down the hallway. "So what have you got planned for the rest of the day?"

"Oh, you know… Not much." Try as she might, Arizona can't help but keep the grin from her face, one that Teddy, or anyone within a 2 mile radius, can't help but notice.

"Spill it." The surgeon demands, her eyes dead serious. "Aarizonaaaa…"

"Nothing…" Arizona tries to keep her face straight, but just the faintest thought of Callie and her mouth starts to curve upwards. "I'm just surprising someone that's all."

"Ooohh… Arizona Robbins got a new beau is it?" Teddy plays, earning her a not so soft sock in the arm. "Oww…"

"Maybe." _Damn Robbins, take back control of your facial muscles._ "I'm not sure."

"How can you not be sure? Have you? You know?" Teddy makes a crude gesture with her hands, trying to articulate what she didn't want to say.

"And somehow you got into med school." Arizona teases. "No we haven't had sex, we've been on one date, and we just kissed. An extremely hot kiss, but that's all…"

"Oh." Teddy replies, a look of disappointment on her face. Obviously she was looking for something a bit more juicy than that. "Soo… Who are they, what do they look like, what do they do?"

"Callie Torres. Aphrodite. Orthopedic Surgeon." Arizona replies happily, a skip in her step at just being able to mention the Latina's name.

"Wait? She's a surgeon?" Teddy asks, suddenly more interested than she had been two minutes ago. Of course the surgeon part was the bit that Teddy would focus on.

"Yup. She just started working here, today is her first day."

_Which must be stressful… A nice cup of Joe should be a welcome sight, right? She drinks coffee, doesn't she? Of course she does, she's a doctor…_

"Woah. That is a stressful day, then." Teddy states to herself more than anyone else, mirroring Arizona's own thoughts exactly.

"Coffee is a good idea, right?" The carpenter nibbling at her lower lip, suddenly not at all sure that her masterful plan is all that masterful.

"If someone bought me coffee I would love them forever." Teddy confirms. With the shifts she works, the woman practically lives off the stuff. "How does she take it?"

_Oh shit…_

* * *

This last hour couldn't have passed any slower. For some reason, this shift is really taking it out of Callie, despite her working for much longer on much less rest on countless occasions before. Maybe it is something to do with the heat. It's much cooler up in the north…

Shaking herself out of her reverie, trying to get her mind to focus, the Latina rubs her hands roughly down her face in an attempt to alleviate some of the tiredness that has inset itself into her bones.

_Only 3 hours to go. Only 3 hours to go._

If only she had some coffee right now, that would perk her right up.

As if on cue, not two seconds later…

"Hi gorgeous." Flipping her body around towards the sound, Callie couldn't control the school girl grin that made its way to her face, the faintest hint of pink blushing her cheeks. Arizona… "I thought you might like some coffee…" The blonde says, holding up a giant coffee carrier full of steaming beverages, at which the Latina can't help but laugh.

"I didn't know what you liked, so I got everything…" Arizona tries to explain with a small shrug, the blush that had warmed Callie's cheeks earlier now colouring the blonde's. "It's too much isn't it..?

"No, Arizona… It's not too much at all." _Can this woman get any cuter? _"It's perfect. Thank you. I was actually just about to get one myself, so..."

"Well, I'm sure if you give the rest of these to the nurses, you'll win some brownie points." The blonde suggests, knowing just how much work the nurses here put in and how much they love their caffeine.

"You are a genius!" Callie smiles, planting a quick kiss on the blonde's lips that leaves the carpenter breathless, her eyes fluttering closed at the contact.

"So I am told." Arizona smiles, loving the fact that Callie is comfortable enough in herself and their… relationship? That she doesn't even think twice about PDA. "How has the first day been?"

"Tiring. I think I forgot how much I love my sleep before I got down here, and now, after the time off… I think I may have ruined myself." Callie chuckles lightly, bringing the coffee to her awaiting lips. "What are you doing out here anyways?"

"Oh you know…" The blonde replies nonchalantly, "this and that…", adding in an wink for extra mystery.

It wasn't as though she was trying to keep anything from Callie really… Arizona was going to tell her about… everything but it just seemed too soon. Things were new, she was enjoying it, and Arizona didn't want to ruin it by being the sick kid at the party that everyone felt sorry for.

"Yo Blondie!" The unmistakable bark of Mark Sloan bouncing its way around the blonde's skull. She swore that man didn't know how to be quiet. "What you doing up here?"

"What's up Marcus?" Arizona replies happily, punching the tall man hard on the arm as soon as he comes within arm distance.

"Oww! Jesus! That's domestic abuse!" Mark whines, rubbing the sore spot on his arm, making Arizona laugh. "What is with you and punching people in the arm?!"

"Cry all you like Sloan. That's pay back for the last time you dragged me out to be your wing woman." Arizona declares triumphantly, not feeling the least bit sympathetic for Sloan and his growing fist shaped bruise.

"Oh, c'mon blondie, you loved it!" Mark protests, moving on from rubbing of the bruised flesh to poking. "More to the point, those girls loved you!"

"You told them I was your sister and it was my first time out on the town and that you were showing me the ropes." The blonde cries "I'm 25 Mark! They thought I was Amish or something! Besides. They were all straight."

"Well, I can at least vouch for the last part." The older surgeon smiles knowingly, nodding his head in agreement.

"Eww…" The blonde's face scrunching up in disgust as though she'd just eaten a rotten tomato. "Way TMI."

"Anyways, you never told me what you were doing up here." Mark repeated, crossing his arms over his chest, his eyes darting between the inordinate amount of coffee, his blonde friend and the Latina who just so happened to be clutching one of the steaming hot beverages between both hands.

Callie, who had been, up until this point, an innocent bystander in the conversation up to this point, and somewhat bewildered by the interaction to say the least, shook her head to brush off the surprise.

"You know each other..?" Callie asks, still not being able to piece together the connection between the two, how they knew each other as well as they did.

"Of course we do! Arizona here has been a regular…" Mark began before a strong elbow to the ribs cut him off. "Oooof!"

"Mark and my brother have been friends for forever." Arizona covers before Mark can recover and say anything more. It wasn't a lie per se. Mark and Tim had been friends for a really long time, but it wasn't exactly the truth either. The truth was the two men were only friends because they had met all those years ago when Arizona's cancer had first reared its ugly head…

"Doctor Torres, you still up for going out tonight?" Mark deflects, throwing a dirty look at the blonde, his ministrations switching from arm to chest.

"Umm…" "I dunno… I was…" Callie stumbles. She really wanted to ask Arizona in a more private setting, maybe over the phone that way if the blonde couldn't make it, she wouldn't be able to see how devastated and whipped the Latina was already.

"You should go Calliope, it'll be fun!"

Sure Mark got preoccupied when there was a pretty woman at the bar, but then again, who didn't? Besides, if you really needed him to be there for you he would be. He was, by all accounts, a shameless womaniser, but that didn't mean he wasn't a loyal friend.

"I just… I don't know how I feel about going alone is all…" Callie mumbles, picking at the heat protector around her now half-finished cup of Joe. "I'd rather go with someone I knew…"

"Well, Arizona is coming, so no problem there then!" Mark exclaims, slapping his friend on the back a little harder than completely necessary in payback for the blonde's earlier beatings.

"I am?"

"You are?"

The two women ask simultaneously, getting a round of awkward laughter from the two of them, Mark trying to hold in his laughter at the sight of the two of them. They had it reaaal bad.

"Of course I am. If you want me to…" _Damn,_ Arizona thought_, am I whipped or what?_

"I want that very much." Callie replies shyly. She's not sure how much she can ask for yet from the blonde, all she knows is that she really wants

"Awesome! See you guys later!" Mark leaves with a laugh, snatching up one of the forgotten coffees from the container before Arizona's usually cat like reflexes can stop him.

"Hey, that coffee was for the nurses!" Arizona shouts towards the man's back, getting only a raising of the coffee cup in response. "Rude!"

"So… You come here often?" Callie asks, trying to seem uninterested as she sips just a little too much of her coffee, resulting in that awkward cough/splurt scenario. _Smooth, Torres… Smooth…_

"From time to time." Arizona plays it off, trying to act cool, but the Latina isn't having any of it. There are only two reasons that she can think of that a person would spend so much time in a hospital if they didn't work there. One, because they were involved with a patient or staff member, which Arizona definitely was not… Was she? And two, because they were a regular outpatient and that never meant anything good… Callie wasn't sure which reason she preferred. "Gotta keep an eye on Teds and Mark here, after all."

"Yeah…" Callie responds absently, her mind too preoccupied by the runaway thoughts and scenarios popping up in her head.

"I am really looking forward to tonight by the way. I was going to just hop into bed early tonight but now I am super excited!" Arizona squeals, almost jumping up and down, startling the Latina, the blonde really hoping that the surgeon drops her current line of enquiry in favour of the much more exciting topic of partying.

"Yeah, me too! I can't wait to get out of these scrubs! They're not exactly the most flattering thing…." Callie gestures up and down her body. At least here the scrubs were a nice blue. She was really glad that they weren't that horrid brown colour that reminded her of…

"I don't know, Dr Torres…" The blonde whispers, leaning into the Latina so her lips are just centimetres from her ear"I've always had a thing about women in uniform. And those scrubs…"

* * *

**A/N 2: So the terrible two have another date! That's two in two days by my count! Thanks for reading! Gonna try and get another chapter out soon, so stay tuned loyal readers!**


	6. Work Hard, Play Hard

**FIX YOU**

**A/N: Hey guys! So, as you can probably guess, I am supposed to be studying again, but I thought writing this would be way more fun! Dinoflagellates may be pretty cool and all that, but Calzona beats plankton every time. **

**Thanks for the responses to the last chapter, I'm glad you enjoyed it and that I haven't totally lost my mojo! Having said that, not exactly sure how I feel about this one.  
**

**One more thing (I know, I can't help myself), but has anybody else noticed how delicious the portmanteau Calzona sounds? I can almost taste it right now ;)**

**Now onto the party!**

**Disclaimer: You guys already know all that jazz, right?**

* * *

**Chapter 6: Work Hard, Play Hard**

If anyone would have asked her, she would have openly admitted it. She was nervous. You know, the kind of nerves where it feels as though your stomach is about to jump out of your throat, your heart is beating a mile a minute and anything eaten in the past 24 hours must have been poisonous. It was those kinds of nerves that Callie had right now, just amplify that by about a million.

Also, if you asked her another question, the question of whether she knew why she was so nervous, she would admit that too. And her answer would be, "I have no frickin' clue." Sure, meeting the people who you are going to spend every day with, working cases with, some of them more taxing than others, is going to get you a bit nervous, but not enough to justify her impending panic attack. No, that wasn't the reason for all of this. That left only one other variable that could be the reason for her stomach doing the hula.

Arizona.

When wasn't it Arizona? Arizona Robbins. The woman that she couldn't keep out of her mind for more than a minute was coming with her as her date. In public. Probably looking, like, completely hot, because, let's be honest, when paired with those dimples and icy blue eyes, what wasn't hot?

If she had analysed it with an outside view, was able to put all her feelings aside and be completely objective about the matter, Calliope Torres would have to say that she had the world's biggest crush on her date. Crush… Was that the word she was looking for? Maybe not, but words always escaped Callie when Arizona was in the room, or in the next room, or across the city, or just in her thoughts.

Smoothing down the front of her dress, a tight black number that made her chest look amazing, hugged her hips perfectly and cut off at her legs mid-thigh, Callie inhaled a deep, supposedly calming breath. After the hours she'd spent getting ready for tonight, she was certain that she, herself, looked amazing, but that didn't stop the insecurities nagging at the back of her mind. In her home,when Arizona had joined her for dinner, Callie had had no competition, no other women present that might distract Arizona's attention away from her, to show her up. But out in public… That was a different matter. And, just to remind you in case you had forgotten, Arizona was HOT.

Callie's head snapped around as a sharp sound suddenly penetrated the silence. It was now or never, judgement time had arrived and now it was time to bite the bullet, to throw three sheets to the wind, to leap off the precipice, because the doorbell had just rang and that could only mean one thing.

Arizona.

* * *

There was no reason that Arizona should be feeling like this. If a doctor opened her belly right now, she was sure that one thousand and one butterflies would come fluttering out, because that's how her stomach felt at this precise moment, like a butterfly breeding ground.

It was ridiculous really. Ever since Callie had, sort of, asked her to go out with her tonight, Arizona had been more giddy than a kitten with a ball of yarn, but as the time got nearer that Arizona had told Callie she'd pick her up from the beach house, the more nervous the blonde had become.

Arizona was hot. She knew it and she didn't think she was being big headed when she said so. She looked after her body as best as she could, the hours of physical labour and the work-out regimen she'd subjected it to had paid its dues, so it wasn't as though she should be insecure about her body or her appearance. Yet she was. When standing in a room next to Calliope, everybody else paled in comparison. She'd make Cindy Crawford look like Quasimodo. All Arizona could hope was that the rest of the women in the bar tonight were straight or asexual. Yeah, fat chance of that happening.

The blonde looked down at the outfit she'd chosen for tonight. She wasn't really one for wearing dresses, she didn't really feel comfortable in them – maybe because she'd always hung around her brother and his friends and had been the epitome of a tomboy when she was a kid. Arizona wasn't sure, all she knew was that she could definitely pull off a dress if she wanted to, but she was never as confident. And tonight, Arizona wanted to make sure she was 110% confident and on her game.

Tight black jeans caressed her legs, blending seamlessly with her knee high boots that Teddy liked to refer to as her 'hooker boots'. A blue polka dot shirt that matched her eyes and lightly cupped her bosom completed the top half of her outfit, her hair flowing in gentle curls around her shoulders - dressy but still casual enough to look effortless, with a light dusting of make-up to complete the look.

Taking in one last, deep breath, Arizona took the final step towards the door, pressing the doorbell she'd fixed not a week ago, a sudden sing-song tone reaching her ears.

'_Be cool, Arizona. Be cool…'_

Feeling a rush of air around her body, the door ahead swung open and Arizona had to remember how to breathe. She'd said, and thought, many times that Callie Torres was a goddess, but she had never meant it more than she meant it now. The black dress she'd chosen to wear fit her perfectly, hugging her curves in all the right places that had the blonde's mind racing just imagining what was hidden underneath. The fact that the dress cut off at mid-thigh, giving the carpenter a view of the Latina's flawlessly sculpted tan legs only added to the wetness pooling in Arizona's mouth, not to mention other places…

"Calliope…" Arizona breathes, not exactly sure how she managed to get a word out when her breathing function was still severely impaired. "Beautiful."

Blushing at the compliment, Callie can't help but smile shyly at the way Arizona looks as though she is about to eat her right there and then on the front porch. Usually, the Latina wasn't one to find the whole piece of meat thing attractive, but on Arizona, and when she was thinking the exact same thing about the blonde, Callie didn't find it anything but hot.

"Thank you." The Latina replies, the shy smile never leaving her face, the pink blush on her cheeks receding slightly as she takes in the sight of Arizona before her. Unlike herself, the blonde bombshell wasn't wearing a dress, but damn… The jeans were almost like a second skin, the way she wore those knee high boots adding a commanding quality to her outfit, her persona, one that Callie couldn't help but get slightly excited about. "You look stunning."

"What? This old thing?" Arizona's face mirroring that of Callie's, a cheeky grin greeting her lips as she gestured up and down her outfit before holding a hand out to the Latina. "You ready to go?"

Taking one last peek into her purse to make sure that she had everything she needed, double checking the keys and phone, Callie nodded her head in affirmation.

"Ready." Callie answers, taking the blonde's proffered hand, a shiver of energy shooting down her spine as she stepped into the cool night air.

* * *

Joe's bar was a small place, but homey. The lighting was ambient, pooling the room in a soft, comfortable light, mirrored by the plush leather padded barstools outlining the bar area. The place wasn't packed, but it wasn't empty either, in fact, there seemed the perfect amount of patrons – enough to keep the place lively, but not too many that you couldn't see two inches in front of you.

That was one of the reasons Arizona liked the place so much, that and the fact that the owner, Joe (of course) was such a nice guy. Not to mention the fact that the women here always seemed to be smoking hot, not that that was anywhere on the list of the blonde's priorities tonight, not when she was with Callie, a woman who could make even the finest fillet mignon look like chuck in comparison.

"There they are!" A voice yells from across the bar, pulling the blonde from her reverie, a smile coming to her face as she waves at Teddy, standing, rather precariously, next to the dart board.

Sitting at the back of the bar, in their usual spot, were the rest of the Ronald Reagan gang, well, the members of the gang who had managed to avoid being on call tonight, that is. Looking at the rag-tag bunch, Arizona couldn't help but smile. A strange bunch they were, but each one of them was her friend and they'd welcomed her into their fold with open arms. She never felt inadequate or out of place with them, although she knew that it would be so easy for every single one of them to shove their fancy M.D. in her face.

"Want to go and say hi?" Arizona responds, kind of wishing that she had the Latina all to herself again, just like the night before. Perhaps the sooner the introductions were made and the sooner the alcohol was flowing, the less tense Callie would become. As they'd approached their destination earlier, Arizona couldn't help but chuckle at the Latina's nerves becoming more and more obvious. What started out as a soft tapping of the foot to the floor of the truck ended up as a full on leg pump, Callie achieving a good work-out within the 20 minute drive.

Looking at the woman beside her after her question was met with nothing but silence, the same smile that had adorned the blonde's face in the truck makes a reappearance.

"It's okay, Calliope. They don't bite." Arizona jokes, trying to ease Callie's tension, the quirking of the Latina's lips bringing a wide grin to the blonde's face. "Except Mark. Watch out for him."

"Okay." Callie breathes, letting out a long breath in an attempt to centre herself. This was the reason that she'd come out tonight, even though she had work early the next morning. One of the reasons, at least. The fact that Arizona was accompanying her was just a happy coincidence… Kind of...

"It's fine, I'll be right here." Arizona adds, taking the surgeon's hand in her own before giving it a quick squeeze, the contrast between the surgeon's warm fingers and her own icy ones sending a pleasant shiver down the blonde's spine.

"Let's go." Callie answers, squeezing the blonde's soft yet muscular hand even tighter, as if to make sure she wasn't about to float away.

Heading over to the guys Arizona rolls her eyes. They couldn't not get drunk before she got here, could they? Getting increasingly closer to the men, Arizona back-tracked her thoughts. Okay, not they, but him. It seemed, to her eye at least, that Mark was the only one who seemed in the least bit tipsy out of him and his best friend Derek. If she had to guess, Arizona would say that around five of the seven empty whiskey glasses she saw on the table belonged to Mark. Nothing new there.

"Hey, hey, hey, look what the God of all that is good just brought to us! Two beautiful, intelligent women!" Mark grins, holding a half finished glass of scotch in the ladies' direction.

"Damn straight." Arizona replies, her eyes never leaving Callie, her body looking even more perfect in the ambient lighting of the bar than it had when she'd opened the door.

"Thank you…" Callie answers a little more reservedly, a soft blush daintily flushing her cheeks.

"See man! I told you she was hot!" Mark hollers, slapping the man to his right, who just so happened to have perfectly sculpted jet black hair and a killer smile, hard on the shoulder.

"Good call, Mark." The man sitting next to Mark replies, a wry smile appearing on his face at his friend's antics. Turning his attention to the Latina, the smile never leaves the man's face. "Hi, my name is Derek, I don't think I've had the pleasure."

"Callie Torres, Ortho, and the pleasure is all mine." Callie blushes as she takes his hand. If she was honest, she was just theteeny-tiniest bit star-struck. Everybody who was anybody in the medical field knew of Derek Shepherd. The man had practically written the book on Alzheimer's after all, and that wasn't even mentioning his perfectly quaffed hair or pearly whites.

"Derek Shepherd, Neuro. Welcome to Ronald Reagan." Add a gentleman to that list. That guy sure was a keeper, if that was your thing, anyway.

"Thanks." Callie mumbles, the words seeming to get stuck on her tongue as she tries to say them.

_'Great job, Callie,'_ The brunette mentally berates herself. _'You need to work with this guy day in day out, and you can't even speak to him like a functioning human being? Get a grip!'_

"You want a drink? I was just about to get us another round." Derek asks, his eyes locked directly with the Latina's own.

Callie bites her lip, not certain whether she should accept or not. She didn't really want to get super wasted on her first night meeting her colleagues, but she didn't want to seem like a prude or killjoy either, especially when on most occasions Callie was more than down to drain the bar dry. However, now just seemed too early to let her new workmates see that side of her. Maybe next week…

"Umm, yeah, thanks." Callie finally replies, earning her another flawless smile from the Neuro God.

"What's your poison?" Derek continues smiling, making Callie wonder how any straight woman could resist the man.

"Bourbon, straight up." Callie replies in a heartbeat. If she was going to drink, she was going to drink the hard stuff, and seeing as no-one else seemed to be indulging in her usual weapon of choice, Tequila, that only left one choice.

"Hot." Arizona whispers into the Latina's ear. There was something to be said about a woman who wasn't afraid of hard liquor, drinking it in the way the makers intended.

"'Zona, water right?" Derek turns to the blonde who had been enjoying the transformation of expressions that had weaved their way across the Latina's face since the beginning of her conversation with, as many of the hospital staff liked to call him, McDreamy.

"You know me too well Derek. Thanks." Arizona nods quietly, smiling internally at the jaw dropped look Callie had been fixing Derek with since the first second she'd seen him.

"No problem." The neuro-surgeon smiles amiably before sliding himself out of the booth, heading directly for the bar.

Sliding herself into the booth in Derek's place, dragging Callie with her by the hand, Arizona plops herself in front of her tipsy friend, fixing him with an unblinking stare.

"Yo, Sloan, who's that that Teddy is with?" Arizona kicks the older surgeon lightly on the leg to catch his attention, the lothario too busy eye sexing a pretty red head sitting at the bar, a half-finished margarita in hand, to pay much attention to his friend.

"Meh." Was all the reply she got. Kicking the man once again, this time a little harder, Arizona smiled triumphantly when a pair of unimpressed icy blue eyes met her own. "Some townie, dunno what his name is."

"Eurgh. Again?" Arizona rolls her eyes. This was probably the third time this month that Teddy had decided to get overly drunk and drown her sorrows. It was fair enough, the blonde did have legitimate sorrows to drown, but doing this, going around fucking everyone who would give her the time of day – which was a lot of people, Teddy was hot after all – was simply self-destructive.

Callie couldn't help but watch as a range of different emotions passed across Arizona's face in the matter of seconds. Anger, sympathy, fear, confusion. Each of them lasted no longer than a millisecond before the blonde's face returned to neutral expression, but Callie hadn't missed a second.

"Seems like it." Mark nodded, looking over his shoulder at the woman in question before taking a long swig of whiskey.

"When are her and Tim going to pull their heads out of their asses and just fuck already?!" Arizona cries, literally waving her hands in the air in the way you'd imagine an aged Italian grandmother would when her grandchildren are running her ragged, just as Derek returns to the booth, handing around the drinks to a round of thank you before making himself comfortable once again.

Still trying to process what Arizona just said about her brother and his sex life, Callie can't help but get the incredulous look off her face before the blonde notices. The less she knew about her sister, Aria's, bedroom activities, the better, and Callie was sure that her sister felt the same way.

Taking in the shocked look the Latina was giving her, Arizona could only smile, squeezing the Latina's hand in her own, the two having been intertwined since the pair had sat down.

"Callie, believe me, the interactions between the two are… maddening! I mean, PLEASE! Everyone can see it apart from them!" Arizona laughs, getting a nod from both the other surgeons at the table, wide smiles plastering their faces.

"Speaking of, where is your brother, Robbins?" Mark inquires as if he's only just realised that Tim isn't with his little sister, his head turning in every direction to find the absent Robbins.

"He's ill…" Arizona sighs, pushing her glass around the table with the tips of her fingers. Having a compromised immune system really made life awkward sometimes, but, better to be safe than sorry – she couldn't necessarily stop getting ill, but she could avoid her ill brother, and that was a loose sort of prevention.

"Oh… And how is that with…" Derek asks, keeping the details on the down low, for which Arizona couldn't thank him enough.

"My parents don't mind, I mean, they understand and everything so…" By this point the carpenter's glass had made a perfect figure eight across the wooden tabletop.

Callie scrunches her nose at the interaction. The conversation had taken a strange turn, one that was mysteriously cryptic onto a subject that it seemed everyone knew apart from her. Before she could dwell on the strange exchange, the very person who was perplexing her mind caught her attention.

"Want to dance?" Arizona asks perkily, a mischievous smile tweaking her lips.

Always one to be ready to shake her stuff on the dancefloor, especially when she was accompanied by a smoking hot blonde, Callie didn't even bother to reply before yanking Arizona out of the booth and onto the dancefloor.

'_Oh yeah…'_ Arizona thought, a chill running down her spine in anticipation. '_This is going to be good.'_

* * *

"Theodora Altman, shut up, I did not!" Arizona exclaims indignantly. "Don't listen to her, Calliope, she's drunk and doesn't know what she is saying."

Callie just laughs, watching Arizona be thoroughly pwned by her extremely drunk friend.

"Yes, I do! I may be drunk, but I can remember this like it was…" Teddy gestures vaguely into the air, pausing in her sentence to do so, not being able to manage both gesture and speech at the same time. "Yesterday."

"I did not make out with a hot dog." Arizona deadpans, her face completely unimpressed, but infinitely amusing to Callie.

"Well then, Miss Smarty Pants, if you didn't make out with a hot dog, as you claim," Teddy answers, shooting a quick wink in Callie's direction, making the Latina laugh lightly, "then where the hell did I get the idea that you did?"

"Mean Girls." Callie chimes in with a smirk, saving the carpenter, whose face had transformed into a beet red from arguing with her friend.

"Come again?" Teddy answers with a hiccup, the way she was looking at the Latina in her drunken haze making Callie think that she'd suddenly sprouted a third eye.

"Mean Girls, the film." Callie repeats, trying her hardest not to laugh at the obviously drunk woman.

"Oh…" Teddy sloshes, her body swaying dangerously on her bar stool as she brings a hard fist down upon the wooden bar in front of her. "Oh yeah! I know!"

Not ten seconds later, the blonde surgeon was making a very close inspection of Joe's' nicely polished mahogany tabletop, Teddy obviously having decided that it was easier to break her fall with her face rather than her hands.

"Jesus Christ, Teddy, how much have you had to drink?" Arizona cries, taking a whiff of the taller blonde's breath before jumping backwards and scrunching her nose at the smell. "Tequila."

'_Guess somebody was on the tequila tonight',_ Callie thought. They'd just gotten here too late for her to partake – a good thing, looking at the state of Altman.

"Maybe we should get her home." Callie almost laughs, the inebriated state of this woman, a woman she barely even met was like something out of a bad teen movie.

The pouty look Arizona gives Callie makes the Latina laugh further, the brunette wanting nothing more than to take the blonde in her arms and kiss the pout from tender lips.

"Here, I'll take one arm, you take the other." Callie offers, bending down to position herself beneath the drunken woman's arm, giving Arizona a heart stopping view of mouth-watering, caramel cleavage that ignites a smouldering fire in her core.

"Thank you, Calliope, this isn't really how I'd envisioned the evening ending." Arizona sighs, using her free hand to push a stray lock of hair that had somehow escaped the drunken woman's intricate up-do behind her best friend's ear, a small act of tenderness that Callie can't help but smile at. She wished her friends back in Seattle had been so good to her, but they never were. It wasn't until much later that Callie discovered that they weren't really her friends at all.

Callie could have said the same thing regarding the end of the evening, she had magined ending the night with Arizona in or at least around the vicinity of her bed, or any bed for that matter, preferably only wearing her birthday suit.

" know, but it's okay, Arizona, really. I've been having a really good time, but it is getting late and I do have work tomorrow…" Callie shrugs sadly. She really had been enjoying herself, but she took this moment as a sign. Being late and hung-over on your second day of work probably wasn't the best way to win over her superiors, her patients and the nurses, was it? And although having Arizona's strong hands gripping her hips tightly, pulling the Latina's core into her own was definitely not going to be matched by her cold, lonely bed, at least she had the fresh memories to keep her company.

Approaching the door, their progress being extremely slow seeing as Teddy periodically refused to lift her feet, the pair were met, or, more aptly, blocked in the doorway by none other than the Nazi herself, Dr Bailey.

"Hey Dr Bailey, I didn't realise you were here!" Arizona calls happily, always enjoying getting a chance to see the woman. It wasn't often that Bailey slummed it out with the rest of the plebeians, but when she did it always seemed a much more classy affair – much more appropriate for a group of their age and, in the majority of surgeons, at least.

"I was just talking over some things over with the chief about new micro incision equipment for general surgery, so I'm afraid that I didn't get to party quite as hard as Altman apparently did…" The 5 foot walking whirlwind said with a raise of the eyebrow, shaking her head at the mess of a woman in front of her. Teddy was definitely not going to be able to live this one down.

"I don't think anyone did that." Arizona snorts, earning her a chuckle from the surgeon holding onto the other side of her passed out friend.

"You might not be lying on that one." Bailey answers, looking Teddy up and down before turning her attention over to Arizona. "Anyway, where are my manners? How's my favourite pa..." Bailey began before pausing mid-sentence, the look the blonde was fixing her with, a look coupled with an ever so slight shake of the head that could turn even the most sprightly to stone. "Person doing?"

Okay, this time Callie was definitely not imagining things. The way Arizona cut off Dr Bailey mid-sentence couldn't do anything other than make Callie's already suspicious mind turn to any number of different scenarios. What was the blonde hiding from her? What was so terrible that she couldn't tell her? And if it was that terrible, then why did Dr Bailey know? Why did Mark know? Why did it seem that the whole God damned world apart from Callie knew?

Trying to rationalise, Callie calmed the raging thoughts in her head with the one simplest answer, and most probable answer that she could think of. That there was something that Arizona wasn't telling her, but they'd only known each other for a couple of weeks. Arizona would tell her what this big secret was in time, in her own time, and until she got the truth, she'd follow Tim's advice. She wouldn't let the blonde push her away, at least not yet.

"I'm good, Dr. Bailey, really good." Arizona tries to sound cheery, attempting to play off the awkward exchange between them as though it was nothing. Even to her ears, it sounded forced, and the perplexed look that scrunched Callie's eyebrows told the blonde that the Latina thought the same. "This is Callie."

"Hi…" Callie smiles lightly suddenly feeling all too self-conscious. For some reason, Callie couldn't say why, there was something about the woman standing in front of her that screamed 'do not mess with me', which was something, considering the petite woman couldn't have been much over 5 foot tall. There was definitely something about this Dr Bailey, and Callie was pretty certain that depending on whether she was your friend or your enemy, your life at Ronald Reagan could be a breeze in the park, or the hardest job you've ever done. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Callie's the new Ortho resident." Arizona interjects, with a hint of pride that makes Callie smile. They've not even known each other for more than a couple of weeks, and have only been on one date, two if you counted tonight, yet the blonde seemed to have become one of Callie's biggest supporters. The smile fades on the Latina's face when she realises that her Dad used to be the one whose voice would light up when he talked about her… Not anymore…

"Finally, a new Ortho surgeon! Dr Chang is a great guy and everything…" Bailey lowered her tone to complete her sentence, leaning in towards the brunette as if letting in on some Earth shattering secret. "But he isn't… Let's say… the most modern surgeon. A bit of new, young blood is just what we need."

After being let through the doorway and out into the parking lot with a wave and a see you tomorrow from Dr Bailey, Callie sucked in the fresh, clean air. It stung her lungs slightly to breathe so deeply into the cold, but it was something she rather enjoyed. It helped her clear her head, to try and make sense of things, and before she knew it, before she realised that her feet were even moving again, the pair, with their inebriated cargo, had reached Arizona's beast of a truck.

"So, you know a lot of the doctors at Reagan pretty well?" Callie enquires, trying to seem nonchalant as Arizona unlocks the car, Teddy moaning slightly at the sudden loud noise. Okay, so Arizona would tell Callie her big secret in her own time. Hopefully. But that didn't mean that Callie wasn't going to nudge a little to expedite the process…

"Yeah." Arizona nods quietly, adjusting her grip on her drunken friend. "I guess it's because I spend so much time being Mark's wing woman and mopping up after Altman's drunken ass." The blonde finishes with a laugh, quickly breaking eye contact with the Latina before any hint of misinformation can present itself on her face.

_'Just play the long game,'_ Callie reminds herself, shrugging off, for now, the strangeness, '_just play the long game.'_

* * *

**A/N 2: So things are getting harder for Arizona to keep a secret! I've been switching backwards and forwards between Arizona telling Callie her secret, or Callie finding out some other way. What would you guys prefer to see?**

**I just wanted to take a second to say thank you to the police officers of Santa Monica City PD and my heartfelt condolences for anyone who got caught up in the whole affair at down there today. I can't imagine what it was like, but it really brings these kinds of occurrences home when it happens on your doorstep.**

**Thanks for reading, and don't forget to tell me what you think! :)  
**


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